Backyard and Beyond

Yesterday, I heard two cicadas whining at the northern end of the Promenade. These were my first of the year. Today I heard one in the back of the apartment, way back, beyond the Back 40 Inches. On a walk through the neighborhood, I spotted a couple of the huge cicada killer wasps (Sphecius speciosus) on Joralemon Street. The one above was perching on sunflower leaves. Quite unscientific, but this date is just a day before I noted my first cicadas last year. You can read more about cicadas and their killers (actually paralyzers; it’s the larvae who eat and kill the cicadas) here.