The cicada hum

Supposedly in the resort town of Taos, New Mexico there is a constant "hum" that can be heard in the area of the town. I know some people who've traveled there, and they heard the wind blowing, cars honking, birds chirping--but now hum.

But there is a hum throughout the Chicago area--and it can be easily heard. Seventeen-year cicadas can make a wail as loud as 90 decibels, and there are millions of the insects flying around the forested areas here. Only the males sing.

Two weeks ago I blogged that the cicadas were cooperative photographic subjects. They still are--somewhat, but they've gotten a little smarter--some now fly a way when I get within a foot of them. And most of the cicadas are camped out on the highest and narrowest branches of tall-trees--predators can't perch on the weak tops of trees.

And that helps create the hum, or I should say a chorus of male cicada singing, since most of the insects are far from the ground--where I was when I took a picture of this bottom dwelling cicada earlier this afternoon in the St. Paul Woods in Morton Grove.

In about a week, most of the cicadas will breed, the females will lay eggs, and they'll die. The hatched cicadas, called nymphs, will burrow underground, and will re-emerge in 2024.

Hopefully I'll be here to greet them.

And the suburbs don't bore me. See Barack, there is a lot of excitement here.

Technorati tags: cicadas cicada insects Chicago nature photography photos Morton Grove New Mexico Taos