![]() David Hoefer of Louisville, Ky., the co-editor of The Last Resort, bids a fond farewell to the Brood X cicadas. If you would like to submit a post to Clearing the Fog, please contact us here. The cicada bloom is finally starting to wind down in my neck of the woods (which is the Louisville Highlands). It is increasingly possible to hold an intelligible conversation with another human outside the house and to travel the sidewalks without the regular crunch of dead or dying bugs underfoot. That said, I had a final cicada experience that might be worth relating. I’m currently taking an online birding course through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (an organization whose praises I’ve sung previously on this blog). One of the exercises, called “sit-spotting,” involves sitting outdoors for 15 minutes, observing the immediate surroundings, and making note in a field journal of all that which most impinges on the five senses. In a Kentucky suburban environment, that ought to mean birds, squirrels, chipmunks, bees, cats, breezes, floral scents, etc. I did this a couple of weeks back, when the cicadas were still hot and heavy. Not wise. My entries read something like:
I’ll give the cicadas this: every 17 years they put on what is truly a command performance. I guess part of the diversity of nature that we always go on about, is that sometimes there is very little diversity at all.
4 Comments
Myra Goodlett
6/25/2021 05:09:26 pm
David, I'm in Lexington and did not see any, but I heard that were terrible in Louisville, glad they are gone for 17 years. Thanks for writing a eulogy that finally made me laugh.
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David Hoefer
6/25/2021 10:41:34 pm
I'm glad that you enjoyed the farewell, Myra - and that you didn't have to put up with the little buggers in Lexington!
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HANNAH J HELM
6/26/2021 10:12:35 am
What a fun post. I had quite a few here in northern Franklin Co, but am surrounded by such a jungle I mostly saw them flying from tree to tree from my covered porch. Loved reading about the sparrow. I may need to brave the ticks and find a sit spot with more of a view. I never see many changes from the porch.
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Joan Cullen
6/26/2021 11:37:48 am
The word "sublime" kept coming to mind during my shared time with the cicadas this year. Appreciation and the accompanying pleasure at observing an awesome force of nature.
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