Finally it’s coming! Cicada are dying in mass, I’ve been able to wake up later than 6AM and open my windows in the morning without running the risk of becoming deaf.
A couple of days ago, one even crashed on my balcony, probably hoping to die there. However, in a last instinct of survival ditch, it managed to sort fly/stumble away when I tried to grab it.
But before that it allowed me to test the macro function of my new camera.
However, I have to admit that I kept the best shot for my other blog: David + World.
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Now, that is what I call a close up 🙂
I was centimeters away.
All the little critters are still singing away merrily here! I can’t say they bother me particularly but I think I prefer winter when they’ve shut up!
French cicada emit a very sweet sound, especially compared to Japanese cicada. Their sound literally wakes me up in the morning, and is literally painful if your too close to them (and by “too close” I mean in a 20 meters or so radius).
Also, usually in France, you’ll find cicada here and there, usually in areas with lots of trees and few humans.
Here, it’s rather several dozens per tree, anywhere, especially in residential areas.
I decided against going to Ritsurin Garden at all this summer because of them.
I would have thought they would start dying from the north first.
My balcony has a wall around it, rather than the bars, and when the cicadas land in there it echos.
What kind of a camera did you get?
It would seem to make sense that they’d die from the North first. However, it’s not the cold that kills them (it’s still very hot here) but their very limited lifespan as adults. And ans they’re born South first (I assume, they die here first too). Well, that’s my theory, I’m far from being a specialist.
I ended getting the Fujifilm FinePix HS30EXR.
My balcony has both walls and the grid that can be seen on the pictures. When a healthy one lands there, it echoes quite badly too.
I confess, I don’t understand the general gaijin dislike of cicada. I enjoy the noise and find it very relaxing and peaceful. It’s one of the things I look forward to most in summer here in Japan. I suppose maybe this is because I grew up in the countryside of Indiana, and the Japanese cicada are similar enough to the American midwestern variety that it reminds me of my childhood. I also find thunder and lightning storms relaxing too, and they often put me to sleep, so there you go.
However, I also really enjoy the bell crickets that come out around this time (or are easier to hear around this time, at least), so I can’t say I’m entirely disappointed when the cicada start going away.
Yeah I heard that some North American cicada are very similar. I never saw any there (I was always in France during cicada season when I lived in West Virginia, and no cicada in Florida, at least not where I lived).
The reason I dislike them is two-fold.
First the noise. It’s literaly painful to me when a cicada gets close. And as our neighbor’s tree is close to our bedroom (I’m so glad it’s a small tree), getting waken up at 5/6 am by such an unpleasant noise is enough to make me hate those animals.
Second, well, the noise too. French cicada emit an actually pleasant noise. Not the best noise in the world, but it’s less intense (see one of the previous comments for more details about French cicada 😉 ).
I love bell crickets though, and it was a pleasant surprise this week to hear them for the first time in Japan.