It’s still a little too early to hear summer’s annual chorus of katydids, but about a week ago we came home and as soon as I got out of the car I noticed a katydid on the truck. I got all excited because I thought maybe I would be hearing them in a day or two.
I knew it was likely too early, but thought maybe the extreme heat we’ve been having was going to cause them to start their hollerin sooner.
Every year I try to hear the first katydids when they began their summer song. Usually I’ve been hearing them for several nights before I realize they have started their singing.
Back in 2022 I think I might have heard them. This is what I wrote on the blog:
“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 one.”
I wrote that on July 1. So I’m going to keep my ears on high alert and see if I hear them in the next week or two.
If you’ve never heard katydids in full force it’s rather loud, but I absolutely love to hear them every summer.
Tipper
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
Best sound in the world
OMG BEST SOUND IN THE WORLD. I call them my summertime sounds Iv never seen one either. I call them katydids or tree frogs I live in a lot of trees in the middle of a subdivision. So I sit on my screen porch and listen every night
Haven’t heard the Katydids here yet but I hard my first cicada yesterday. The birds, crickets, and tree frogs are just a-chorusing this morning like they’re trying to wake the sun up! Katydids won’t be far behind.
Oh I love to listen to the katydids. I’m looking forward to hearing them. It’s things like these that give me joy & make me smile.
I have never really given much attention to katydids or cicadas. In my ignorance I just assumed the noise I would hear at night were tree frogs. I know this year was suppose to be special year for the cicadas, they did not disappoint in my neck of the woods, they really put on a concert everyday for several weeks. I live way out in the country near a creek and woods, the cicadas really out did themselves.
Tipper, I love hearing Katydids here in the northern panhandle of West Virginia as well. We took Lightning Bugs and Katydids for granted when we were young but like you, they bring me such pleasure now.
I remember when I was a kid we would sing a song titled “K-K-K-Katy” I Googled the song and it turns out we were only singing the chorus. I’d love to hear Paul sing it. Here’s the entire song:
K-K-K-Katy
Jimmy was a soldier brave and bold,
Katy was a maid with hair of gold,
Like an act of fate, Kate was standing at the gate,
Watching all the boys on dress parade,
Jimmy with the girls was just a gawk,
Stuttered ev’ry time he tried to talk,
Still that night at eight,
He was there at Katy’s gate,
Stuttering to her this love sick cry.
No one ever looked so nice and neat,
No one could be just as cute and sweet,
That’s what Jimmy thought,
When the wedding ring he bought,
Now he’s off to France the foe to meet.
Jimmy thought he’d like to take a chance,
See if he could make the Kaiser dance,
Stepping to a tune,
All about the silv’ry moon,
This is what they hear in far off France.
Refrain:
“K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy,
You’re the only g-g-g-girl that I adore;
When the m-m-m-moon shines,
Over the cow shed,
I’ll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door.”
I’m already hearing the cicadas, or locusts, whichever it is, during the day. We don’t usually hear them until July, but the heat up here is bringing them out, I guess. Hearing the katydids at night always brings back memories of being in the canning kitchen with my mom late at night, trying finish up the day’s harvest.
Yes, those Katydids sneak up on us. Partly I think it is because they start slow and small, just a few and not continuous. When we become aware, it is lots and near-continuous. Personally, that “bugs” me a bit because I want to hope I am more noticing than that. How-some-ever, I must acknowledge what is – I am not all I want to be, yet.
Open windows. That’s what I think of in connection with katydids; summer nights with the bedroom windows open when I was a child. Ar conditioning and ceiling fans have changed all of that. Not many kids growing up now will be sung to sleep by a chorus of katydids.
Gene, I remember those hot nights, open windows and if lucky a box fan in the window. Despite all of this, I would still be hot. I now prefer being spoiled, I like being sung to sleep by an air condition lullaby.
Just looked at the extended forecast for my area for rest of this week through first week of August, temperatures of 90 – 98 degrees forecast for everyday. For the next ten days nothing more than a 20% chance of rain. We have had nothing this month since the first day or two of the month.
I’ve heard them the past 2-3 nights here in southern Middle Tn. To me it’s a sign of hot weather and it has been that for a few weeks. I haven’t mowed because we haven’t had rain in a while. Grass is crunchy under my feet and there are many brown spots where there are large rocks just under the surface. I’m glad I don’t have a garden because it has kept me busy watering plants I have in pots. Katydids remind me of July as a kid when we had a family reunion and relatives from Fl were joined by locals to camp at a local state park to celebrate one of my grandmother’s birthdays. She camped with them to close to 100 yrs old. She made it to 103. Those who didn’t camp would meet the others for a pot-luck dinner, baseball game and fun. Now I usually don’t think about the katydids until I hear that first one and realize it’s almost that time of year.
Perhaps that was just a scout and the rest of the troup will be along soon. Hope it won’t be long till you hear your nightly serenade.
Carolyn-love that! It was a scout I’m sure 🙂
Last night here in central Georgia, I heard the first katydid’s of the summer—This sound always takes me to such a wonderful place!!!!! When I grew up in the late 50’s and 60’s, we didn’t have air conditioning; so, we had to sleep with the windows up and we had the old metal oscillating fans in all the rooms. In 1979, my husband and I moved into this house where I grew up. Through the years we have done a total remodel of this house, so none of the nostalgia of my childhood is left except in my mind. We do still have huge trees in the yard—trees I once tried to climb and one tree in particular where I always wanted to build a treehouse. The katydid’s have been singing their song in this yard for my whole life and it is a sound that I will always love and enjoy—a sound that takes me back to some of the sweetest memories of my life!!!!!
We get Cicadas here in Texas & I do the very same thing….listen for the first sound of them. This year they came earlier than usual. With their little weak voices, I heard two of them around the middle of June. After a couple of days, they were in full form & more had joined in. They can get loud when they all “sing” at once. We seem to have more this year as I am finding their little dried shells that they shed everywhere these days. I always say, “You know summer is here when you hear the cicadas & see the crepe myrtle trees blooming”. Blessings to your family!
It’s funny, I have heard them and knew what they sounded like, but never seen one, that I could recall, until now. Thanks for posting a picture of one. Now I know what to look for when I hear them start to sing.
Are these the same things as what we called jar flies? We would hear them late in the evening near
dark time.
Angie-katydids are different 🙂 Here’s a couple of posts about both where you can hear them: https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/katydid-in-full-force/ and https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/have-you-been-hearing-jar-flies/
Hearing the katydids singing makes me feel peaceful and full of joy. I am not a summer person but hearing them sing makes me appreciate this season more.
For the longest time, I thought katydids and cicadas were the same thing. If I ever thought of it at all, I guess I figured they sang one song by day and another at night. If there’s one bad thing about air conditioning other than the cost, it’s that I can’t lay in bed and listen to the katydids through open windows at night.
I never quite enjoyed them or even remember them much growing up. I just remembered thinking they were hot summer noisy bugs. Maybe I thought that because I grew up in Florida with no air conditioning. They were just a reminder of how hot it was. lol
The katydids are the background singers of a sweet summer night.
We always loved the Katydids, too. I haven’t seen or heard them in many years along with most other insects that were common when I was a child. I remember windshields and screens covered with everything imaginable, but I haven’t seen a bug or millers/moths or even a cricket of any kind in years. I can’t remember the last time I saw a bug on a windshield or a screen. I’ve also noticed the loss of most birds that were prevalent in my youth. Katydids and Luna moths were my favorites.
The first ones must be shy. When they found out you were listening they stopped. A lot of people are like that too. I’m one of them. A people, not a katydid, that is.
I enjoy Tipper’s enthusiasm concerning the things in life that cannot be bought or sold! Love it!
Ok, now Tipper, I’m confused. Are jar flys and katydids/locusts all the same thing? Growing up in Florida, my parents would call them katydids or locusts. I know they’re supposed to be really loud this year. I have not heard the first one yet. But I know it’s usually July when they start in singing all night long and sometimes throughout the day. I know a lady I watch over in Asheboro, NC about a month ago was showing all the empty shells/bodies of the locusts around the bases of her oak trees, and you could hear how loud they were too. Plus, when we traveled over to Alabama back in May they were just a singing in the middle of the day. I remember as a child, their singing would get louder if the sun went behind the clouds. Then as the sun peeked out they would quiet some. To me it really is one of the real sounds of summer.
Donna-Here’s a couple of posts about both where you can hear them: https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/katydid-in-full-force/ and https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/have-you-been-hearing-jar-flies/ Cicadas are different. This is the year for the 17 year hatch out, but we haven’t seen any around our house.