Here’s a picture of two Magicicada mating from Michael Fiorenzo. Photos taken in LaGrange.
June 9, 2007
Gray Eyed Cicada
Here’s a great photo of a gray eyed cicada found in Glenview, IL by Matt Bergquist and photographed by James Planey.
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June 8, 2007
Emergence Report for 6/8, part 1
Hacked: yes the site was down part of yesterday because it was hacked. We’re back to normal now. A setback, but, I’m going to post a lot of video and pictures this weekend — I promise.
Locations:
- Full force in Homewood, IL
- Great emergence in Midlothian, IL
- Sublime in La Grange Park, IL
- Westchester is a blast!
- HORRIBLE! in Lombard (that must mean there are LOTS in Lombard)
- Full swing in Highland Park
- “Massive amounts, we’re talking thousands upon thousands in Villa Park”
- “literally trillions in Western Springs Hinsdale La Grange The Morton Arboretum etc”
- HUNDREDS in Glenview
- Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, IL
- Ear piercing in Westmont, Clarenden Hills, Downers Grove, Hinsdale…
- Quite a sight in Goodrich Park in Naperville, IL
- I&M Canal and Rt. 6
- In the woods by the Cal Sag Channel
- Two (2) cicadas at the McBride Raptor Center outside of Iowa City
- Thousands at Rogers Lakewood park in Valparaiso
- Thousands in Roscoe (on the Wisconsin border, north of Rockford)
- 10’s of 1000’s in Glenview Illinois
Report from cicada station 60126. Includes photos.
Another account of the cicadas at the Brookfield Zoo and Ryerson Woods. Note: the emergence at Ryerson was just beginning last weekend.
June 7, 2007
One Red Eye, One Blue Eye
Talk about one in a million: Steve Turner found this Magicicada with one red eye and one blue (sort of like a Husky dog or David Bowie). This is one of the highlights of the emergence so far.
June 6, 2007
Chicago Trip Wrap Up
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?
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:
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!
Dana Holmes photographed this cicada at the Pug Party this Saturday in Chicago. I can’t identify the species — can you???
Magicicada nymphs emerging by Roy
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June 3, 2007
Cicada Fishing Lures
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.
June 2, 2007
Day One the the Lake County Forest Preserve
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 (rip).
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.
Time to face the (cicada) music
A great photo of a Magicicada by Christina Thorell:
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