Cicadas

Green Grocer

We're warming up again now and a good sign that summer is well on the way was a mass emerging of cicadas a month or so back. There are always a few about but every 6-7 years there's a more significant event when these little critters burst from the ground en masse with a resulting deafening racket and associated feeding frenzy.

 Climbing nymphs

The cicadas are particularly numerous up in the Blue Mountains and, as luck would have it, I happened to be staying at the in-laws' for the weekend when they decided that it was time to go. Wikipedia tells me that each one of these is pumping out 120 decibels. I can believe it!

Bursting out

The cicadas up in the mountains are mostly Cyclochila australasiae or the Australian Green Grocer to you and me. They live the majority of their lives underground in nymph form feeding on the sap of tree roots but eventually they burrow up out of the ground, climb the nearest object, and burst out of their nymph skins to reveal the brightly coloured cicada that we all know.

Pumping the wings up

As we were taking in this extraordinary event, a frogmouth suddenly alighted only a couple of metres above our heads. Maybe our torch light made it easier to spot the tasty morsels emerging from the ground. Maybe it thought that we were getting a good feed and wanted to join in. Whatever the reason, I've never seen one actually approach people before.

Tawny Frogmouth

I think the local possums were getting in on the action too as all nymphs kept mysteriously vanishing from their favourite tree and I'm sure I saw one of the possums grinning and licking his lips!

Dinner