המועדפים של mrodenborg

The sound of the summer of 2016, here in western Pennsylvania, U.S.A., was definately dominated by the return of the 17-year Cicadas! I first noticed their emergence from the ground on May 24th, along the stream above Dutch Fork Lake, where there seemed to be already a dozen or more per square meter, mostly clinging to low growing weeds. It was hard to walk without stepping on some of them. None of them were "singing" yet however. A few days later, I thought I heard one alone in the morning, and by mid-day it was apparent that the invasion was truly on - and seemed at first to be coming, slowly, gradually, over the hill east of our Buffalo Township farmhouse.

We have since often called their chorus "deafening," which is quite true in the sense that they drown out almost all the other sounds that we are used to hearing this time of year. They even make conversation difficult outdoors. A friend memorably observed that together, they make exactly the sound of the original Star Trek Enterprise's main phasers!

These 17-year Pharaoh Cicadas are very unlike the larger ones heard most intervening summers, both physically and audibly. Turn your speakers down some if you want, there was no way to quiet this loud chorus in the field!

Listen carefully and you'll hear some other pretty interesting bird and insect sounds embedded in the Cicada chorus.

Recorded with a RØDE Stereo Videomic Pro microphone mounted on a Canon EOS Rebel T3i camera shooting video. This microphone is able to overcome the noise of the camera's pre-amp to produce this superb quality digital audio. Try listening to this with headphones (if you can stand it)!

It was early in the morning and I made one circle around the Eco building when I spotted this guy by one of the picnic tables when I was fixing my backpack. I thought this thing was dead but acting with care I gently nudge the thing with my boot and it moved. It was pretty cold this morning and he may have been a little too cold to fly or move around a lot. This thing was black all the way with some big eyes. His body may have been about two inches or so. It was a pretty freaky looking fly. I have never seen one this big. It looked one of the creatures in Doctor Who. It was very strange. I thought this was some kind of horse fly but I am not convinced I think those are lot smaller than these guys but it may be in the family. This one is a strange one; if one thing is for certain I am baffled. A very interesting insect for the day.

Horrible doc photo. Yellowish-brown warbler with distinctive black striped head, which can somewhat be discerned in photo. Was foraging among leaves on the ground very far from trail and difficult to see through the vegetation. Several others have better photos of this bird on eBird.

The egret only stayed an hour on the river here. My young neighbor ran to my house and took some pictures and then the egret flew away. It was noted that 2 great white egrets migrated over Hawk Ridge in Duluth yesterday morning.

We pulled over on the road approaching the lock and dam. View is fro the car and through the trees. The three of us agreed "100s". It was stunning. In among the mergansers is a large eagle sitting on the ice.