Cicadas

Yesterday we took a nice drive to Georgia and spent the day checking out a couple of state parks and took in some interesting sights while in the area.  I plan to blog about several of our experiences this week but today will focus on cicadas.  I had heard on the news that the 13 year cicadas are coming out of the ground this year and we are to be prepared for the noise they make.  So far we have not heard them and that was the last thing on our mind when we pulled into one of the state parks.  It was a quiet Sunday and as we drove into the park we could hear a horrible noise.  We both thought it was the truck.  David opened the windows and we both listened.  The sound was overpowering and certainly couldn't be anything good.  He got out and lifted the hood and we could still hear the noise.  He decided to turn off the engine and we could still hear it.  We breathed a sign of relief but that ear piercing sound was filtering thru the air and we couldn't imagine what could be causing it.  We finally stopped and talked to the camp host and she informed us it was cicadas! For about 6 weeks or so they will be making their sounds.  I've never heard anything quite like it before.  It is extremely irritating.  I suppose you would get used to it after a while.  The lady we spoke with said they have been out for about 3 weeks now and she doesn't even notice them anymore.  While in the park we noticed quite a few dead cicadas on the ground.  We didn't see any alive but the sounds they were making certainly let us know there were there.  I have included a link to the 13 year cicadas for those interested in reading more. (click the title of this blog to read get to the link). Below is a photo I took of one of the many dead cicadas we saw yesterday.