Cicada Mania

Dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world.

June 6, 2007

Chicago Trip Wrap Up

Filed under: Brood XIII | Magicicada | Periodical — Tags: — Dan @ 7:35 am

Sunday I spent the day at the Ryerson Woods Cicada Mania festival. The Lake County Forest Preserve folks did a fantastic job putting this event together: they had music, fun for kids like face painting and a costume contest, and entertaining & informative talks by cicada expert Gene Kritsky. I spent more time filming with the Fuji TV crew, looking for more white-eyed cicadas (no luck), and exploring trails. At the very end of my visit I discovered a large emergence of cicadas out by the river between a footbridge and a cabin (I think it was called the Stokes cabin). Around 5:30 pm I heard a sound like boiling water; I looked down and thousands of cicada nymphs were crawling from the ground. The experience was sublime. I even found a brown-eyed cicada.

A big shout out to everyone I saw wearing one of our t-shirts!

There are more cicada hikes going on at Ryerson this weekend. If you go, I recommend you go to the cabin by the river. This weekend there should be plenty more cicadas to see and hear.

Monday I made it out to the Brookfield Zoo, which is about 25 minutes south of O’Hare. I read that there was a large emergence of cicadas at the zoo and that the animals were feasting on the cicadas — I had to check it out. When I pulled into the parking lot of the zoo the noise of the cicadas was overwhelming! Kids were screaming “CICADA” and spending more time looking at cicadas than the zebras and bears. Most of the cicadas I saw and heard at the zoo were Magicicada cassini (small with all-black abdomens). I don’t remember seeing any animals eating cicadas — maybe they’ve had their fill. The Zoo carousel had two cicadas rides! How cool is that?

Carosel

Carosel

This is an example of lousy photo composition. If I were smart, I would have had a zoo animal in the background to prove this was at the zoo:

Cassini at the zoo

More video and photos to come... check back often…

No thanks to Sony, whose Handycam takes so-so video and isn’t compatible with Macs, Best Buy for lying to me when I asked if the Handycam was Mac compatible, Apple, for iMovie which does not support muxed Mpeg 2 video (which is what the Handycam makes), and Cannon, for making a digital camera with a macro setting that essentially turns every photo into a fuzzy blob.

Nothing to do with my trip to Chicago, but here’s a link to www.seventeenyearcicada.com. John’s been posting this URL on the message board every other day. Maybe if I post it on the homepage, he’ll chill out.

June 5, 2007

Indentify this Cicada!

Filed under: Cicada Arts | Identify — Dan @ 7:40 pm

Dana Holmes photographed this cicada at the Pug Party this Saturday in Chicago. I can’t identify the species — can you???

Emma

Emma

Magicicada nymphs emerging by Roy

Filed under: Brood XIII | Magicicada | Nymphs | Roy Troutman | Video — Dan @ 8:59 am

Magicicada nymphs emerging by Roy Troutman.

Magicicada nymphs emerging from Roy Troutman\.

June 3, 2007

Cicada Fishing Lures

Filed under: Pop Culture — Dan @ 10:22 pm

A few fishing lure manufacturers make cicada shaped lures, leveraging the fact that fish, especially big fish, will eagerly consume cicadas that fall into water. A cicada struggling on the surface of the water is like a dinner bell to hungry perch and bass.

Fishing and cicada enthusiasts should consider buying one of these novelty lures.

cicada fishing lures

Cicada Shaped Fishing Lure

Cicada Shaped Fishing Lure

Cicada Shaped Fishing Lure

Cicada Shaped Fishing Lure

June 2, 2007

Day One the the Lake County Forest Preserve

Filed under: Brood XIII — Dan @ 11:41 pm

Today was a great day. I attended Gene Kritsky’s talk at the Lake County Forest Preserve. After 11 years of Cicada Mania, it was great to finally meet Gene and see one of his speeches. I also got to meet Cicada Mania contributor Roy Troutman for the first time, as well as Gerry Bunker who runs the information rich Massachusetts Cicadas website, and Joe Green, who contributes to the Entomology – Cicadidae Yahoo! Group.

I also spent a lot of the day with a film team from Fuji TV, the Japanese ABC affiliate. They’re filming the emergence for Japanese TV. Very cool!

I was able to take a couple good photos, and some video. I hope to upload the video on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Adult Magicicada

Time to face the (cicada) music

Filed under: Brood XIII | Magicicada — Dan @ 6:40 am

A great photo of a Magicicada by Christina Thorell:

Adult Magicicada

June 1, 2007

Adult Cicadas

Filed under: Brood XIV | Roy Troutman — Dan @ 10:01 pm

This is as adult as it gets for Magicicadas.

Adult Magicicadas

Another great photo from Roy Troutman (who I apologize to for the crop job on his original photo).

Chicago

Filed under: Brood XIII | Magicicada — Dan @ 9:05 pm

Looking forward to seeing Gene Kritsky speak tomorrow at the Lake County Forest Preserve.

Blogs (some with pictures)
First, Catch Your Cicada .

Photo of the day

Photo by Joe Balynas.

Cicada

Cicadas in Ann Arbor area?

Filed under: Magicicada — Dan @ 3:01 pm

Kaz wrote to tell us that Magicicadas are appearing around Ann Arbor MI, contrary to popular opinion — I’ll waiting for pictures to confirm…. Developing…

Update: these would be Brood X stragglers, not brood XIII. 🙂

May 30, 2007

Last update before Chicago

Filed under: Brood XIII — Dan @ 10:04 pm

Today I leave for Chicago! Saturday and Sunday I’ll be around the Lake County Forest Preserve Cicada Mania events. Saturday is Gene Kritsky, and Sunday is the Cicada Mania festival. Hopefully there will be time to drive up to Wisconsin because I’ve never been there. Monday, I’ll probably head down to the Brookfield Zoo, and watch the animals eat cicadas.

If you see me (I look like Lenny Clark) say hello.

Some new emergence locations: Prophetstown, IL, Wicker Park in Chicago, just east of Portage, IN, Moraine Nature Preserve, New Lenox, IL… BTW, Lake Geneva, Wi seems like a hot spot for Wisconsin.

Photos:

A massive brood XIII photoset on Flickr. The Cicada photos keep pouring in to Flickr — check them out.

Ms Frack has posted another great series of photos on her blog.

Music:

It’s the King Of Cicada. Listen and download.

News and Blogs

Tips to protect small trees.

Video of teachers eating cicadas for charity.

Why is Curmudgeon driving us buggy? More cicada stuff….. Nice pictures.

Cicada Outbreaks Linked to Other Animals’ Booms, Busts. I contributed a quote to this one.

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