Now that the weather is getting hot the cicadas are making
their way out of their underground burrows where they have spent the last
couple of years as babies. Once they come up to the surface they molt, leaving
behind creepy shells that I find in the shrubs outside of my apartment. They make
a really powerful chirping sound, and somehow they know to all start up at
exactly the same time to the point where it’s almost deafening to be outside. I
kind of enjoy the sound, and they usually don’t keep it up for too long. While I was reading out on the patio a bird
chased one onto the brick, and kept swooping down at it from the trees. Cicadas
are about the size of your thumb, and after a while this bird decided that he
was a bit outmatched. The poor cicada stayed there motionless for probably an
hour before deciding it was safe to fly off.
This morning as I left for the gym, I heard a really strange
croaking noise, similar to a frog but not quite. I didn’t know what to make of
it until I looked up and saw a magpie tearing into his breakfast; this particular
cicada wasn’t as lucky. I’m probably being overly sensitive (do cicadas even
feel pain?) but the sound really bothered me. Where were all his cicada buddies
that were singing with him the other night, and couldn’t they have just swarmed
that dumb magpie?
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