Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

Tik. Tik. Tik. Tik-tik-tik-tik-gigigigigigigigigigigi. Tik. Tik. Tik-tik. Gigigigigigi. A high-pitched buzz, almost imperceptible shivers from the boughs of the spruce near my window. A small insect, barely a few inches long, sits on a branch. It cranks out a tune produced by it's wings rubbing against one another. This act is called stridulation and is being performed by a creature called a bush katydid. Now whether it is a northern bush ( Scudderia septentrionalis ), or a treetop bush ( S. fasciata ), or even a Texas bush katydid ( S. texensis ), I can't be certain. The fact is that my ears, as dull and imperceptive (at least compared to other animals) as they are, picked up these small vibrations used to attract a female into the male's territory. Those of us with access to trees, meadows, or even an open backyard can experience the variety of songs produced by this annual summer symphony. Their mixed signals and sounds delight us as we rest in our beds after a lon...

As the summer begins to wind down, the trees buzz and trill with the songs of night-singing insects. As I walked around the backyard recording their sounds with my camera, I thought back to seeing some of the small red-headed tree crickets on the deck earlier in the week. It's too far north for Handsome Trigs ( Phyllopalpus puchellus ) surely, but they did look very similar to them indeed. The rather obvious "ch-ch-ch" or "katy-did" sounds are made by a large leaf-mimicking grasshopper called the Common True Katydid ( Pterophylla camellifolia ). I only started hearing them last week, but already I find it wonderful to fall asleep at night to the sounds of their stuttering courtship song. It's certainly cool enough to leave the windows open now and doing so certainly cools the body, soul, and mood. So here's to a winding down of summer with cooler days, warmer colors, and the ever present smell of cinnamon to come. Until then, lets enjoy the trills a...