Scarlet Pimpernel

Yup, have been able to smell that cicada funk scent for a little while now. I guess a lot of the ones that emerged earliest are dying off, plus all the half-eaten ones left by birds or otherwise have gotten squashed and have been lying around on the sidewalks or the street. Anyone else hear them at night ever? I swear the last several I've heard them well after sunset (and even toward the middle of the night). Not as loud as during the day, but still clearly. I've heard that they might be "active" around artificial lighting like street lights, etc. But in general they don't do anything while dark. There's plenty of street lights and other building lighting around here.

Yeah, still pretty loud where I am too. And definitely a lot more flying about, all over the place, over the past several days.

@H2O's video recording of his first experience of an emergence...

So you're like Brigadoon then, but on the cicada cycle. You wake up every 17 years to a new emergence, but only age a day in that time!!

Huh...cash, eh? I thought he would only take weenie souls as payment! So even the Reaper and his Four Horsemen of the Snowpocalypse have given in to the all-mighty mortal dollar!!

Rippin' cadas!! They're flying all over, too!

Haha!! I've actually found myself "saving" a number that are sitting there on the sidewalk, picking them up and gently placing them on a tree! What's interesting is that for as clumsily as they fly, they have quite the grip when clinging to something. If you let them get on your finger, for instance, they really stick to you and it's hard to get them off onto a tree branch! I guess that's why they can lie upside down so easily!

Thanks! Yeah if you look closely enough you can see the ones laying eggs. I actually saw quite a bit of that going on in the past few days, and even saw some "tree flagging" beginning (where limbs turn brown and hang). Was able to get a ~3 minute video of a female laying eggs in a twig, among a few photos. Pretty cool! I'm going to actually miss these little buggers when they're done this time around. Glad I have a lot of pictures from this one (didn't get too many from 2004), and some neat video. We'll see the next generation in 17 years then! Hell, by that time I'll be nearly as old as @H2O, I can sit there on my porch and yell at the cicadas to "get off my lawn...and outta my trees!!"

Cicada coastal has really taken over this week, with a full tuck and stall. High ratio banding!

Seems the Cassinis are late risers compared to Septendecim. In the morning I don't really hear them (only hear the din of Septendecim) but by noon they are going strong! And pretty sure I heard Septendecula at one point, the "tick tick tick tick" clock sound.

Female cicada laying eggs in a twig.

Cassinis covering a cherry tree... Cicada landed on my hand for a photo op!

The regular annual cicadas will be around come mid-summer! This week has definitely been the most active and loud (since the cold and rain last weekend), and I've seen very many flying around. There's cherry tree nearby that is covered with Cassinis, all over the branches, and singing up a storm! Pretty cool!!

They aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, that's for certain! I've seen them fly into telephone poles (and bouncing off), land in the middle of the street, etc. I guess there's a reason they emerge by the billions!!

I see. Totally understood the thrust of your argument there.

It sure "went down" fast, that's for sure!!!

Must be too old of a term for "making out". I think even @H2O might recognize it! But his lingo might go even farther back than that! Perhaps he can enlighten us on an equivalent Chaucerian phrase...

Beautiful choice of words there!

Uhhhh, errrrr....there are no words!!! RR might have some, though!

Mind the (weiner) gap!!!

"Sex trees"...LOL!!! Yeah, don't want them fornicating on your neck, either!!! Brings a new meaning to the word "necking"!!!

It's interesting, for the most part during the day it's just a general din that I hear. But listening closely enough, in some of the trees right where I am, I can clearly hear the distinct "Phaaaa-roooh" of either individual Septendecims or "smaller" choruses of them. When I'm outside I can also clearly hear the distinct "ssssssssszzzzzz" (sizzle/hissing) of the Cassinis right underneath several trees too. Kinda cool!

There's a couple of more wooded areas nearby me (though not like "deep woods" really). I noticed they were later to emerge in those areas, but they now are pretty loud there. I've heard that they "prefer" to be more along the edges of forests and woods areas, not so much way in a deep forest or anything like that. Maybe your area is just on the edge enough that you get them all but they aren't in the main wooded part.

Thank you!! Yes, a highly unusual year or so for certain. I'm glad that she was able to at least go back part of the time starting in April and see some of her classmates. And the graduation is outdoors tomorrow at the school stadium...hopefully any showers or storms will be more in the afternoon (though they have "rain dates" of Friday evening and Saturday morning)!