The Cicada

It's early September in Bittersweet Woods. Bright sunny days, cool nights. Perfect weather for these often humid, hazy, or cloudy latitudes. The signature sound for late summer here is the buzzing of the annual cicada. These are the dudes which appear each year in mid-summer. They flit around in trees and issue forth with loud buzzing sounds.

For their size, they are one of the noisiest animals in nature. The sound is the male mating call produced by vibrating sections of their abdomens. Starting at mid-day, you can hear them everywhere there are trees. There are several sounds. One is a torpid, slow buzz that starts slow then tapers off. It's as though they are just waking up or warming up. Then there is the familiar loud droning sound, continuous modulating buzzing sound. Last there is an in-between sound, more subdued, less strident. You can catch some of the variations in these videos.




I really like the plaintive background noise of cicada calls. It brings back memories of childhood - of trying to catch the cicadas and seeing the empty larval shells from which the cicadas emerge. It is also a bittersweet summer sound - a sweet comforting reminder of this beautiful time of year but a bitter (sort of) sign that summer is inevitably waning.

I hear the cicadas everywhere there are trees, even in urbanized areas. During Edward Kennedy's burial procession to Arlington National Cemetery, cameras showed the motorcade slowly coming into view at dusk. The reporters quieted. In the background was an unmistakable cicada chorus. Tonight a reporter on the TV news spoke from the White House grounds. Cicadas nearly drowned out the the reporter's impassioned explanation of something thought to be important.

What chorus of life - people, nature, pets - do you hear in your corner of the Woods. Are you listening?