hummingwolf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hummingwolf) wrote2004-05-23 10:22 am
hummingwolf) wrote2004-05-23 10:22 am
Entry tags:
Hmm.
I've been reading this page on cicadas and trying to listen to the audio clips so I'll know exactly what I'm hearing from our local critters. Sadly, I'm having some trouble distinguishing the sounds on the computer from the sounds in the real world--turning up the volume on my machine helps, but turning down the volume on the bugs outside would help so much more.
What I really want to know is this: If cicadas sing their mating songs in sunlit treetops from morning to evening as long as adults are around (which is what assorted web pages tell me), what the heck is that noise I keep hearing at one in the a.m.? Do cicadas snore (at high pitch)? Do the people who write these web pages live in soundproofed homes where they never hear the noises after dark? Or is the Mother Ship using the emergence of periodical cicadas as camouflage, thinking nobody will notice a little alien noise as long as billyuns and billyuns of bugs are around?
What I really want to know is this: If cicadas sing their mating songs in sunlit treetops from morning to evening as long as adults are around (which is what assorted web pages tell me), what the heck is that noise I keep hearing at one in the a.m.? Do cicadas snore (at high pitch)? Do the people who write these web pages live in soundproofed homes where they never hear the noises after dark? Or is the Mother Ship using the emergence of periodical cicadas as camouflage, thinking nobody will notice a little alien noise as long as billyuns and billyuns of bugs are around?
no subject
If you aren't able to hear them when you walk outside, then you must not have that many around. It's unmistakable.
no subject
Heh. Don't worry, we are very much not missing out on the cicada invasion here. But the bugs are supposedly not active at nighttime, and at night I still hear a high-pitched, metallic sort of noise that sounds a bit like the background layer of the daytime sounds. That nighttime noise is the one I'm wondering about.
Daytime sounds? High-pitched noise in the distance, second layer of sound a closer noise that rises and falls & is somewhat lower in pitch, third layer of sound is a rattling noise rising & falling in waves, and then there's an occasional sort of clicking sound that's a bit like an automatic sprinkler. There are cicadas crawling on the outside walls of the house and flying around in the yard, so there's no chance that it'll just verge on the range of my hearing either. Our bugs are very, very present. :-)
By the way...
It's good to know you're still around out there.
Re: By the way...
I know I've been pretty absent, but I've been kind of...discontented with things in HMC land recently. Nothing terrible or drastic, just slightly irritating. Un's argument about closing up shop on the chatroom was depressing too. ::shrug:: A lot of things are different, aren't they?
no subject
no subject
So you didn't live in invaded territory 17 years ago either? I guess the town I grew up in had been developed too recently for Brood X to be all that noticeable at home in 1987. Anyway, the periodical cicadas supposedly stick around for 4-6 weeks total. After that, of course, there'll be the common annual cicadas, but they're so much quieter than these billions of periodical guys!
Re: By the way...
As for the HMC--things are always different. This kinda hit me when Un was mentioning some people who he misses seeing on the mailing list and included names of people who haven't participated much since before I started. If people are longing for the days when everybody was active in the group, well, those days never existed, ya know? I do miss certain people (you!) and the old activity levels... but I seem to remember the list being most active when Forge and Pete were complaining about their lack of success in dating, and I have the feeling neither guy would really want those days to come back.
no subject
no subject