Cicadas

About ten days ago, I was driving north on 9D near Fishkill NY.   As I passed the Stonykill Farm, I heard this strange sound....similar to the sound made by a bicycle when a card is attached to the spokes of the wheel.  I asked my son-in-law, who is very knowledgeable about such things, if that was the sound of the Cicadas.  He said he didn't think it was.  The Cicada is a very ugly bug (about 1 to 2 inches in length) that lives in the ground.  There are different species, but this one is called the "periodical Cicada."  That is because it only surfaces once every seventeen years.  It looks for a mate.   The female deposits her eggs in a groove in a tree branch.  When the egg hatches, the tiny bug frees itself from the groove and falls to the ground.  It burrows in search of a food source and stays there approximately seventeen years.  Then, it starts the same cycle again.

About four days later, we were at St. Mary's Church in Fishkill, which is situated about two or three miles east of the farm.  When we got out of the car, my son-in-law heard the same sound (now louder) and commented that it was probably the Cicadas.  My granddaughter stated that it sounded like a car alarm.  A few days later, in Lagrangeville which is northeast of Beacon and Fishkill, you could hear the same sound, estimated to be 7Khz.  It reminded me of a sound you would hear in the Southeastern section of the country.  This past Saturday, I drove south on Route 9 into Cold Spring.  This area is more heavily forested.  The nose was very loud and occasionally a flying Cicada would hit the windshield or roof of the car.  Eerie....

I noticed after a few days that I just got used to the noise.  It must be like what a person who has tinnitus experiences.  In a few weeks, the noise will subside and life will go on.

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Lark Sparrow?

While here in LaGrangeville, NY, I drove one of my granddaughters to soccer practice in Freedom Plains earlier this week.  I usually take the opportunity to walk the path around a nearby pond.  This area was previously open farmland.  I took the picture below and have enlarged it to show the bird's markings.  The best match I can find is a Lark Sparrow.  Whatbird.com does not show this bird being on the East Coast.  Wikpedia states that the Lark Sparrow is "less" common on the East Coast.   LaGrangeville is approximately 80 miles north of New York City.  If you recognize this bird as something other than a Lark Sparrow, please let me know.


On the same evening, I saw four male Mallards trying to get near a white duck, which really looked like a domestic farm bird.  There was one that stayed very close.  As I walked the oval path around the pond, I met a woman who was very concerned about all the males following the white duck.  She related that since the domestic bird, which she named Aflack, could not fly, she fed her all winter.  Also, this woman had tried to get someone to rescue the duck, but to no avail.  The Mallard shown hanging around the white duck had apparently been her partner all winter.  The woman named him Dooney.  This evening was quite chilly for a Californian and the Red-wing Blackbirds seemed to feel that way too, as their feathers seemed very fluffy.  On the other hand, the Robin Red-Breast didn't seem to mind the cold at all.





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