Cicadas!!!

There was a familiar sound in the maple trees last week, as temperatures were beastly hot... cicadas!

To hear them is to dive deep into the water of summer. Cicadas, fireflies, heat, humidity, and flowers... they are all claiming their place again in the cycle of the year.

Yesterday, we had a spectacular thunderstorm. I am glad we did not see the tornadoes that others saw. Here, we had constant rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning. Afterward, the sky continued to put on a show, as I looked out and saw a rainbow arching across the sky, all of the colors clearly visible.

I'm working on getting a photo of that rainbow on here. Stay tuned!

Summer heat

For the past week, the birdbath has been the most popular feature of our yard, as the heat index has consistently been over 100 degrees. I counted twelve young robins in the yard at one point, waiting to bathe. Sometimes they seem to wait patiently, at other times they seem like squabbling siblings jockeying for position.

We've had to refill it at least three times a day. They splash with abandon, sending a spray of droplets all over the lawn around the birdbath. Some of the robins walk around underneath, fluffing out their feathers in the wet grass. There is almost always one sitting on my statue of St. Francis's head, waiting for a turn. I don't think he'd mind.

The evenings have been spent watching fireflies and bats. These days the sun doesn't go down until almost 9pm. The days seem to go on forever. In spite of the heat, I'm treasuring these moments with the young birds, the fireflies, and the cicadas. Fall will be here all too soon.

Summer Serenade

I was washing dishes this evening, when I realized that I was hearing a very familiar sound in this unfamiliar place... cicadas! How appropriate for this evening, one of the shortest nights of the year.

Cicadas are such interesting insects. I remember being stunned to see the pretty colors on a live one when I was a kid, since previously I had only seen the split brown exoskeletons on the trees.

We had one type in Tennessee that sounded just like a chainsaw. That one was a periodical cicada that only makes an appearance above ground in a 13 or 17 year cycle. The cicada I am hearing tonight here in NE is the more common "dog day" cicada, but I believe periodical cicadas appear here, too.

June 23rd is now marked as Nebraska "cicada day" for me. It is very possible that they were out a while ago, and I did not notice them before tonight, but it will be interesting to see when I first notice them in future years.


The fireflies are out in full force, too.