We Just Heard Our First Annual Cicadas of 2009! July 12, 2009

At 8:20 this evening, Aaron and I heard the year’s first Annual Cicadas for our block in south Oak Park, Illinois!

It was this song: http://bit.ly/A08Wu (link to a WAV file). However, this evening’s cicada was singing much slower than the recording, as would be expected when the temperature is mid 70s (which is cool for a cicada). As has happened most years, we heard the first cicada songs in our neighborhood near sunset. Later in the summer Annual Cicadas will be singing from late morning through early evening, then quit as the sun sets.

The scientific name of this species is Tibicen pruinosus. (Sorry, cicada species don’t have common names, the way birds do.) Go to this University of Michigan website to see and hear examples of Tibicen pruinosus:
http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/michigan_cicadas/Michigan/Index.html#Tibicen_pruinosus

Now we’ll look for our first live nymphs, first shed nymphal skins, and first live adults of the year. When we find them, we’ll post photos here.

You can read about our earlier adventures with cicadas at our Kids’ Cicada Hunt website (go here to see it).

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As I was writing this post, my friend Joel, who lives about three or four blocks southeast of us, sent me a Facebook comment. He also heard his first Annual Cicadas this evening, at almost the exact same time we did!

Have You Heard Cicadas Yet This Summer? July 12, 2009

Aaron pointed out that we haven’t heard an Annual Cicada yet this year. Last year we heard the first one on July 14, but in other years we’ve heard them as much as a week or two earlier. Of course, there have been several weeks of very cool weather this spring and summer, and that might have delayed things.

Have you heard a cicada yet this summer? Usually the first species to appear in the Chicago area makes this song: http://bit.ly/A08Wu (this is a University of Michigan WAV file). Once Annual Cicadas start singing, they keep it up until at least early October.

Our family has taken a special interest in cicadas for many years. One of the first websites I developed was Kids’ Cicada Hunt (go here to see it). My first blog also was about cicadas (go here). I started the cicadablog in 2007, the year that large numbers of Periodical Cicadas emerged in the Chicago area.

Anyway, we’re on the look out for any evidence of cicadas in our neighborhood. We’ll let you know when we find them!

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I just checked Dan Century’s Cicada Mania website (here) to see if he had news of Annual Cicadas. His Community section (here) did have reports of Annual Cicadas from Virginia and New York. He also had a useful post about the most common cicadas of summer in the eastern and midwestern United States, the genus Tibicens (here).

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For Twitter users: Here are some TwitterFolk who’ve tweeted about hearing cicadas: @petitealamode (Ohio); @bikeonastick (Minnesota); @EnnuiPrayer (Texas); @cyenobite (East Coast USA). (I’m a Twitter user, too: http://twitter.com/NearbyNature.)

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Update posted the same day:  At 8:20 this evening, Aaron and I heard our first Annual Cicadas of 2009. Go here to read more.