Katydid on window
Every year I try to hear the first katydids of the season. I never accomplish it. One hot summer night I’ll suddenly notice the loud chorus that surrounds our house and wonder how long have they been welcoming the darkness.
But I think I might have caught them this year!
Last night we were all going to bed and Chitter and I were lingering in the living room chatting about this and that when suddenly I heard katydids. I was trying to listen to them with one ear and to her with the other.
It sounded like they were either down near the creek or across the way on the ridge. It wasn’t the full choir of summer but definitely a good quartet.
Just as I was about to yell at The Deer Hunter to see if he heard them too they quit. They stopped all at the same time, just went silent.
When I walked back to the bedroom I told The Deer Hunter I thought I’d heard the first katydids and he was either already asleep or decided to ignore my statement 🙂
Yet this morning when I stumbled bleary eyed by the living room on my way to the kitchen I noticed something on the window…it was a katydid! So now I’m positive I really did hear the first ones of the year.
Since their song was so short I suppose they were only practicing for the main performance which will be here soon.
Last night’s video: Unique Grammar Usages in the Mountains of Appalachia.
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I always listen for them, but haven’t heard them here in Macon County, NC yet.
The last few nights we have heard cicadas and seen the odd firefly.
Chiming in from Austin, TX: the toads have been singing off and on for a month
and the katydids for almost that long.
When I was a kid I thought all the waves of singing
towards dark were cicadas.
It’s funny how the toads do not mind when I shine a flashlight on them to see them better.
Lots of lightning bugs lately.
Thank you all for the posts and appreciations of night sounds!
Haven’t heard katydids yet here in eastern NC
If you are not hearing katydids it’s because you have katydidn’ts. Katydidn’t can only hum along. They don’t know the words! ♫♪♫
Alas, no Katydids in CA! Even sadder, no fireflies!
Sweet post. Thank you Tipper.
Love this! One summer, my cousins from Washington State were visiting here in east Tennessee. We were outside when the chorus started up. They were astonished and asked what that noise was. I tried to explain that it was made by insects when their eyes got really big and one of them said “Just how big IS this bug?” We finally saw one and were able to put their minds at ease.
I’ve seen a few but haven’t heard them yet. This hot dry weather we have been having has drastically cut down the insect population here. No swarms of gnats, no skeeters and hardly any flies.
I like to sit outside and listen to katydids at nightfall but when it comes bedtime the concert is over. I listen so intently to them I can’t fall asleep.
The other day Missy came by. We were outside. I heard a bird mockingbird fire up.
I said “Listen!”
Missy listened for a moment and said “They are talking to each other!”
Me “No they are not! That’s just one bird!”
Missy “I can hear more than one bird!”
Me “Nope, it’s one bird!”
Then another one started up with all its variety of sounds. “Now they are talking!”
Do you ever wonder how they manage to sing in ‘waves’ of sound, lower and lighter then louder and higher? It is like waves on the shore and they are all in sync. They have been singing so loud this year it is beautiful!
Oh, the sounds of summer! A few years ago, we added a screened porch on to our house and, even though we are in town there happens to be no houses directly behind us so it’s lots of trees that lead to a creek, and we enjoy sitting outside at night listening to the sounds of summer. For the last week or so, we also have been seeing lightening bugs as we call them lighting up as they zoom around. Still needing rain here. Like some others said in their posts the other day, seems like rain is all around them but not on them or enough to matter. I was hearing yesterday about some earthquakes being felt in South Carolina. Stay safe and have a blessed day everyone.
One of my favorite sounds was always the sounds of spring and the night sounds. I never stopped to ponder them, but just enjoyed. No matter how smart we become we can always learn more about what surrounds us in nature. I have been oft surprised in so many I have met who have no curiosity at all about all the wonder that surrounds them. Thanks much for my first ever actually seeing what a katydid looks like.
Me too! I’ve seen those critters before but didn’t know they were the ones making all the music.
My mother worked in a Pre-K room for 20 years and she said that she saw curiosity in the children diminish greatly over the past 7-8 yrs. They had no lust for life, no wonder, and NO imagination. You couldn’t joke with them, because they didn’t get that you were just teasing them. In her opinion, this wasn’t true at the beginning of her career. She would bring in tadpoles & the class would take care of them & watch them change into frogs & would be amazed. The last couple of years she didn’t even bother, because they didn’t care. Its not a good sign. I have my suspicions about why this might be so….
I’ve heard them for a while now outside Atlanta. Have even found their empty shells outside. Love the sound.
Being Appalachian, almost everything was a “sign” of something, according to Mama. I wonder if hearing them could be a sign of something because I noticed hearing them night before last as I sat on my porch in Baldwin GA. Of course the lightening bugs were putting on a great light show at the time. My little dog was fascinated by their twinkles. I was too! I thank God that I can see, and hear, and pray, and notice the beautiful sights and sounds of Nature. Hugs, Barbrie
The katydids started up the first of the week here in Ellijay in my woods. Like your, they were so loud I could hear them in the house. They quit and started up again a few times, then went into full chorus. The peepers joined in along with a far away Whippoorwill. Beautiful.
In southeastern KY it was (still is I expect) the folk saying the first frost was 90 days from.the first katydids. That reliably falls in early October though the actual.day is variable. It works as a general warning; think weather forecast versus a weather warning coming on the day of.
Katy does have been calling here for awhile. I think I heard the first ones but I didn’t note the day. However, I do not think the 90 days works at all well here in north Georgia.
I sure do wish somebody had – or would – write the book on regional weather lore versus actual recorded weather. However, it would be a project on the order of the DSME or DARE which we already know took two and a half lifetimes. And I fear folk sayings have gotten moved around from where they were accurate to places where they are not.
Maybe the best thing is just to enjoy nature’s symphony and watch the fireflies rise.
I haven’t heard the katydids yet , I do love to hear them and Phillip says the Rose of Sharon is blooming and he says that is a sign of frost in 3 months , have you ever heard that one ?I’m canning some good ole green beans today , they sure are pretty , don’t have any spots on them . Sure will be good in the winter with a big snow on the ground , probably taste better than a snow ball ! Ha
Nina-I haven’t heard that one thank you for sharing it 🙂
I’ve heard (down here in FL) that when the dog fennel blooms, frost is due ????? can’t remember when. I think it was 6 weeks. Anyway, we’ve heard Katy for over a month and being Florida – I don’t think we will frost in August. But dog fennel hasn’t bloomed yet and won’t for another couple months.
My Rose of Sharon bloomed last week so that one must not be for FL, wither. The dog fennel does seem to get it closer. I’ve heard that heavy crops of acorns (ours are very small) mean a really long winter. They are provided for the wild hogs that love acorns and help them survive and last year was a very heavy crop – it was cooler longer.
I heard them here in southern Middle Tn the first of this week. I happened to be outside at dusk and noticed one. It didn’t sound like usual. I noticed it sounded like it was tuning up or a young one that hadn’t gotten it’s full voice yet.(Yes, in know it’s not really a voice.) The past couple nights that one has been joined by a few others. I know they usually start in July. Hearing them brings back memories of cousins coming from Fl to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday. Local family would gather to camp at Fall Creek Falls State Park, more local family gathered on Sunday for covered dish picnic and play baseball, and the katydids were in full force by then. It’s funny how certain sounds and smells bring back memories. Now to hear a whippoorwill. I hear owls here often and a few weeks ago heard a whippoorwill while in ETn. I really miss them.
I love the katydids, bullfrogs, whippoorwills, and all the sounds and smells of summer. I love the smell of fresh cut grass and drying hay. Even the occasional owls hooting outside my bedroom window are a joy (though a bit spooky on a full moon, hahaha). On quiet nights I can hear my neighbor’s donkey sounding alarm if he think something is going to bother the cows. Thanks, Tipper for more memories.
I agree with you Kathy, we love all the sounds and smells of summer too – all of God’s creation. I wish more people would get outside and enjoy it as well instead of being plopped on their couch watching TV. They just don’t know what they are missing do they?
You all are about 2 weeks ahead of us. I always hear the katydids in our region of Indiana right around my birthday which is the 18th of July. Like you, I would listen each year and it was a couple of years ago when I learned when they started their nightly chorus. We love the sounds of summer!
I haven’t heard them, but glad you got to hear the first ones of the season.
Here in west central Alabama they have been singing for more than a week. We sit outside at night just to hear their nightly performance. Love living in the country ❤
I too listen for the katydids every year about this time. I heard the first ones Tues evening. They bring back such precious memories of sitting on the front porch just as the sunlight begins to fade. With my mom , dad, Grannie and Papaw Campbell……….
I still , at 75 years old love to hear them……Those simple , wonderful memories never get old…
Their main performance is something to hear here in the mountains. I have not heard them yet, but I know it will be soon. I find them soothing on a summer’s night!
I heard them a day or so ago but mot again. In Hiwassee Dam area
We play the same waiting game for the spring peepers (little tree frogs) that make their appearance in late March or April, depending on when we have a warm up in CNY. We all run outside & listen to them singing from the swamp across the street. My granddad always said the “peepers have to freeze off 3 times, before spring is here”. We will here them a few nights and then it will dip below freezing again & kill some off. We count how many times that happens – 3 xs & then it isn’t supposed to get below freezing again. This year it didn’t hold true really. But its nice to keep the saying alive.
I have not heard them yet. I have always heard that when you hear them, it is a certain amount of time before the first frost. I can’t remember how long it is suppose to be, but I have never kept track. Also, when you see the Joe-Pye Weed blooming, there is a meaning about how hard and how soon winter is coming. I, growing up in upstate Florida had never heard that one til I moved to Blue Ridge, Ga…and sure enough it seemed to ring true. I did learn a lot about Appalachia while up there and what I did learn was interesting. Of all the cultures around in this country, it does seem like a lot of Appalachia holds on to theirs. God Bless you guys and keep on teaching us.
I’ve just recently heard the Katydids singing here on the Plateau. Katydids and bull frogs are the two star performers of real summer nights. I love to hear them.