At first light here in Australia, summertime, 1st January 2004, the Razor
Grinder cicadas began their usual roaring, and I went out and recorded them
from my front verandah.
This is a species of cicada that choruses at dawn and dusk. They chorus in
unison, starting soft then gradually reaching a crescendo then slowly
subsiding again; each cycle lasts about half a minute I guess. Not a
beautiful sound, but a spectacular and fascinating one. A few birds tried
to chime in but it was hard to hear them over the din of the cicadas.
What a contrast to last summer's drought when all was silent.
The sound of cicadas always makes me think - another scorcher coming up!
Maybe it will reach 40 degrees C today, that's quite hot.
Happy New Year to you all, say the cicadas!
Vicki Powys
Capertee Valley, NSW
Australia
PS there's a good web site for Aussie cicadas, take note Greg! Lindsay
Popple has excellent pictures and sounds for many species. Click on the
link:
http://www.zen.uq.edu.au/entomology/ins-info/
on 1/1/04 1:52 AM, Wild Sanctuary at wrote:
> At first light today (about 15 minutes ago), while walking to the
> studio, the sound of a pair of great horned owls greeted me from our
> oak forest in the quiet between the winter storms we've been having
> this past week. It's the only pre-dawn critter sound in these here
> parts at the moment. I suspect they were sending New Years greetings
> to all the nature recordists. I'm just passing along their sentiment
> to all.
>
> Bernie Krause
>
> Wild Sanctuary, Inc.
> P. O. Box 536
> Glen Ellen, California 95442-0536
> Tel: (707) 996-6677
> Fax: (707) 996-0280
> http://www.wildsanctuary.com
>
>
>
>
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
|