July 17, 199 - Of singing cicadas and fish thievesJuly 15, 1999 • The Suffolk Times • 7A
Of singing cicadas and fisht'hieves
From Orient a call came asking for
help in identifying "a big bug with red
eyes." The insect world is a real chal-
lenge and one I'm poorly schooled in,
but fascinated by. My reply was, "I'll
do my best to see if I can find out
what it is." My library of reference
books is limited but my librarian,
Barbara, is what
really makes it FOCUS
work. She has
the uncanny ON
ability to search
out the needed NATURE
information. In by Paul
this case she was Stoutenbulgh
able to find the
"red -eyed bug" in one of the handy
little insect guides that have the most
common insects one would run into.
We had a hint as to what it was be-
cause over 10 years ago our son
found an odd insect in his back yard
and brought it to my attention. It had
already shed its outside skeleton, still
attached to the tree, and was in its
most familiar shape — the common
cicada. Most of us know it by its high -
pitched call on hot, sultry summer
days and nights. It's a loud buzzing
sound that builds up in strength and
then gradually fades away. When we
were kids we were told if you heard
the cicadas calling it was going to be
hot. In those days everyone called
them "locusts."
Cicadas are those legendary insects
that burrow into the ground and re-
main there for various lengths of time
(the duration depending on the
species and location). The most cele-
brated one is the 17 -year cicada. All
the while the cicada is in the ground,
it's living off roots of trees or shrubs.
When it's time to mate, it digs itself
out with its specially equipped front
feet and climbs the nearest bush or
tree. Then its shell splits down the
back and in so doing liberates the
adult in its new form of a hard -
shelled, big -eyed, transparent- winged,
pudgy- bodied insect that we often
NFAWL meets July 17
PECONIC —The North Fork
Animal Welfare League will hold
its annual meeting at 9:30 a.m.
Saturday, July 17, at the Southold
Town Recreation Center on
Peconic Lane. All are welcome.
Call 765 -1811.
find on the ground, either alive or
dead. The reason we find them dead
is that once they mate, the male cica-
da's reason for living is over.
Then the mated female lays her
eggs on a twig and she, too, dies.
Later the eggs mature and hatch. And
the young drop to the
ground, dig in, and start their
underground life. How long
they remain in their dark and
earth -bound home depends
on the species. Then on
some warm summer day the
urge to explore the world
above takes over and the
whole cycle begins again.
Now let's turn from insects
to fish snatching. As usual,
we eat outside on our little
back patio and last week we
were enjoying a blue -crab
feast when I looked up to see
a small crow -sized bird walk-
ing around the edge of the
bird bath a mere 30 feet
away. This bird bath is a
huge five -foot affair that
attracts birds of all sorts to
bathe. On this occasion it
had attracted a green heron.
This particular bird builds its
stick nest about a half mile
to the north of us and has a
regular flight pattern be-
tween our pasture pond
below and its nest up the
road. I put goldfish in the
pond to take care of the
mosquitoes. The pond makes
a good shopping stop for this
fish- loving heron. Lately the
pond has acquired a coating
of duck weed, which makes
fishing a bit more difficult
for Mrs. Heron. To find easi-
er fishing Mrs. Heron began
looking to expand her fishing
range. In doing so she must have
spotted our big bird bath that also had
goldfish to take care of the mosqui-
toes. The goldfish do a great job on
those pesky devils; that is, until Mrs.
Green Heron spotted them.
It just so happened that my son,
who had suppied the bird bath with
its goldfish, had stopped in to feast
with us on the first crabs of the sea-
son. We were all busy enjoying those
delicious gifts from our local waters
when I spotted the movement of the
heron out of the corner of my eye.
in its hasty retreat it dropped the fish.
It took me a few minutes to find
the stolen fish and when I did it was
barely alive. I tried to revive it but
I'm sorry to say it didn't make it. Now
I kind of wished I hadn't scared the
heron off for now I had a beautiful
dead goldfish that could
have been a meal for the
heron's young. This was the
first time I ever experienced
goldfish snatching right
under my nose.
Today more and more
people have garden pools
and stock them with fish.
More and more herons,
kingfishers, osprey and even
raccoons will find them out
and have a feast at some-
one's expense. Of course, we
could put netting over the
ponds but that takes away
from the attractiveness of
the garden setting. There's a
new device on the market
that my older son has used
on his pond. It works
through an electric eye or
motion detector that turns
on a noisy sprinkler head
when something moves in
front of it. As soon as any
movement is detected it
shoots out a spray of water,
doing no harm but scaring
away the would -be robber.
I was not aware of this
installation and so when I
walked up to his pond to
inspect some new - bought koi
(fish) swimming amongst the
water lilies, I was greeted by
a chilling spray of water. I
had set off the device. My
son says it works great ex-
cept when it rains. Then it
activates itself by the motion
of the raindrops. Needless to say, if
Mr. or Mrs. Heron come in during a
rain the device is useless, but then we
haven't had too much rain lately. For
those of you who have a fish- snatch-
ing problem, this gadget might be
worth looking into.
Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
As time rolls on and the hot days of summer take over,
we often hear the harsh buzzing call of the cicada In
the tree tops. Here we see It, newly emerged in its
most familiar form, and the skeletal remains that It left
after its prolonged stay underground.
You guessed it. There was Mrs. Green
Heron, wrestling with one of our
biggest, most prized goldfish. Needless
to say, I stopped my feasting and
yelled, "She's got my fish!" I ran
across the lawn shouting and waving
my arms. It scared the heron off and
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