Late yesterday afternoon we heard our first Annual Cicada of the year here in south Oak Park, Illinois. It was a Tibicen pruinosa singing in an ash tree by the fire station, three blocks from our house. About an hour before sunset we heard a couple of the same species singing in trees just west of our backyard.
Go here to see and hear examples of Tibicen pruinosa, (Sorry, cicada species don’t have common names.)
http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/michigan_cicadas/Michigan/Index.html#Tibicen_pruinosus
Last year we heard our first Tibicen pruinosa on June 26, and the year before we first heard them on June 27. This year they seem a bit late, although there have been years when we did not hear them until early July. Here is a page with some of our earlier records for first and last dates for Annual Cicadas: http://saltthesandbox.org/cicada_hunt/DatesFound.htm
So, it feels like summer is finally here, at least for cicadas! On the other hand, in our birding we are discovering that autumn migration has begun, with shorebirds like Lesser Yellowlegs and Red-necked Phalaropes already heading south. It seems that nature’s seasons are much more complex than the human calendar suggests.