NATURE NOTES: Cicadas

A magicicada (periodical cicada) sits on a leaf.

 DAN CENTURY/Contributed photo

The other day, a coworker of mine asked me about cicadas. “Weren’t there a ton of cicadas here last year at this time?” he wondered. And he was right. Here at Gulf Coast Bird Observatory headquarters, you couldn’t walk down a trail last spring without being overwhelmed by the dull, echoing screeching of cicadas. But now, I can barely hear them at all. Why could that be?

Fear not bug lovers. The cicadas are not going extinct. Rather, they are buried underground.

Celeste Silling is Education and Outreach Manager at the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory. For information, visit gcbo.org.

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