Buzz-saw Cicada

I actually was able to find a cicada this morning -- a Dog-day Cicada -- and watch it 'sing'. I was sitting in my hummingbird chair following the two hummers (probably the same youngsters who hatched out of the adjacent nest) chase each other around. Suddenly a very loud cicada started to sing (or is it call?) from a pine tree right in back of me. I twisted my head but couldn't see anything; cicadas are notoriously difficult to spot even when they are right next to you. A moment later it sang/called again from another tree, also behind me. This time I was able to twist my head in time to catch the insect in flight It landed on a third perch on the underside of a dead pine branch and I was able to lift up my binoculars and find the insect where it had landed. It looked more dark than green with transparent wings and, amazingly enough, I could actually see the vibrations of its so-called 'tymbal' as it made its characteristic buzz-saw song -- opening crescendo, sustained buzz for c. 10-12" and then fade-out. It called twice from this perch and then took off again. Wow! So much life around us and so much that we usually don't get to see!

Fairly quiet morning otherwise. There was a bedraggled sparrow at the edge of the marsh trying to dry off in the sun; it was clearly not a Song Sparrow (and not a Grasshopper or other Ammodramus sparrow either). I think it was an early Swamp Sparrow, a bird that arrives in numbers later in the fall but is usually not seen here so early (however it does breed on Eastern LI in a few fresh or brackish marshes so this could have been a local bird).

Also a couple of hummingbirds at the head of the marsh (far from the nest tree) and, as I trudged back to the house, the passing Wild Turkey parade in all its glory.

Eric Salzman