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| Looking like an alien, a Double Drummer emerges from its shell |
As a kid, I remember the deafening sound of cicadas in summer. Somehow over the years, they have disappeared. However, in 2020 when everything was upside down and back to front the cicadas reemerged from their underground burrows to mate, sing and repopulate. The noise levels were intense. We have had hours of fun tramping through the local bush discovering all kinds from the smallest amber tail to the large double drummers. The only problem was keeping an eye out for snakes, they were everywhere sunning themselves on rocks and slithering through the leaves.
We participated in ‘The Great Cicada Blitz’ a citizen science project to record what species we discovered. The project is run by Dr Nathan Emery and thanks to his useful identification book and the iNaturalist community we managed to identify many of our discoveries.
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| One of the smaller types, an Ambertail, sounds like electricity humming |
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| Learning how to record sounds |
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We watched this one emerge,
at this stage, it is letting its wings dry |
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On this day at Appin, we found a rarer morph
of the Green Grocer, a Yellow Monday |
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| Yellow Monday |
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| Eastern Double Drummer |
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| Stephen getting the best shots |
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| Literally, thousands of cicadas emerged |
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My watch kept giving me noise warnings,
90 decibels is equivalent to a blender |
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| Redeyes were the most common in our area |
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| The bush was lush and green from all the recent rain |
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| Some of the different sizes, from 10-50mm |
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| Chasing cicadas on our wedding anniversary |
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