Sunday 25 April 2021

Scavenger Photo Hunt - April 📷🌎

 Welcome to the fourth word of the Scavenger Photo Hunt for April. This week's word is -

Earth...
Lots of dirt for Nathan to play on! This was from getting ready to build our new home seven years ago.


Now these next two photos were not taken by me, but pertains to mine.
Covering the grass was the bottom part of a trampoline that had been taken apart. When they (dear friends of ours), pulled it back, this is what they found.
Photo credit, Brian V


Lots and lots of tunnels!
Photo credit, Brian V


While getting rid of rocks in our yard, this is what I was finding all over the place, more tunnels.


This is one my DH took last week in our yard, one of the culprits!
Welcome to the world of the Cicada, due to dig their way out of the earth in our area in the next month. Cicadas are a large insect with long transparent wings and beady eyes, they only come out every 17 years . The male cicada makes a loud shrill droning noise by vibrating two membranes on its abdomen, and they are LOUD! The last time they were here, we couldn't even talk on the on phone outside. I'll have to record them when they're in full force so you know what I'm talking about.


Here's an old photo I took years ago, although not a very good one.
When they came out in 1987 (yikes!), my older brother came to pick me up to take me for a motorcycle ride. It was a hot day and I was totally not thinking and wore shorts. Wrong outfit! We were on the highway, going way too fast since he liked to scare me, having those darn Cicadas hit me full force on my legs and arms, OUCH! Thankfully we were wearing helmets, but then they just splattered on the visor, disgusting! DH does have a motorcycle, but luckily? we haven't been on it in years.
They have estimated that in Maryland, for every acre, 1.5 MILLION of these little suckers will be coming out of the ground. We have an acre, but maybe when we rebuilt our house we disrupted a good bit of them? We'll see!
They are harmless to us, but they could be destructive to our trees when the females burrow their eggs in the branches. 


Here's Chewie, resting in the dirt that is waiting to be covered in mulch. He might be waiting for the Cicadas to emerge, the Lab I knew in '87 loved to eat them! 🤮


Here's just some of the rocks I've been collecting in our yard while cleaning it up. They are coming up just about everywhere, so I've moved them to our new "rock garden." 


Now this is a fun way to plant, perfect when you live near the water!


Here is our planet earth that I stitched for Nathan's 1st Communion quilt at school, with Ming and Maximus keeping me company while stitching.


That's it for April, be sure to look and see what the others have posted for their Earth photos. OOPS, one more week in April, get your Bubble photos together! 

Ready for May?
May  7th Space
May 14th Mirror
May 21th Rain
May 28th Music

9 comments:

Carol said...

Well ... I never knew that about cicadas. I have only really ever heard of them in romantic novels when describing a gorgeous scene, with the hum of the cicadas in the background ... this is certainly a different spin ... I think I’m glad we don’t have them here 😃

Vickie said...

Cicadas creep me OUT!! They look prehistoric! UGH! I do not envy you! Good luck with that!

Tigermouse said...

If you wanted to put me off ever coming to live, or even holiday, over there then you've done a very good job. I hate creepy crawlies so no way could I ever live with that many cicadas around :( I do like the last photo though, the deign looks lovely :)

Threads through my life said...

What a lovely set of photos and text. I do know about cicadas and am so glad there are none here! I know they do not appear that often but ....

Thanks for the words for May too!

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

They come out every 17 years? That's both random and very specific! Why would a species evolve to do that? Fascinating in a gruesome way.
My ex would never have let me near the bike with shorts on, leathers, gloves and jeans no matter the weather! I used to put a short skirt on top of my bike leathers so I could take them off when we got where we were going in nice weather!

Susan Smith said...

Interesting set of photos & interesting about your cicadas. We have them here in Oz too & a huge variety, my favourite being the Greengrocer. We don't get them much here in Victoria as we did in N.S.W, but when about the noise can quite deafening. The only creepy crawlies I can't handle are big hairy spiders, so I wasn't put off by your insect photos. Love, love the planted boat & keep eyeing off derelict ones I see.(lol). Take care & stay safe.

Barb said...

I remember the cicadas well. My poor DH went to a zoo and had popcorn. They fell from the trees into the popcorn! Disgusting!! And yes, very loud. We are hoping they do not appear in the Pacific NW!

Linda said...

Great photos except the bugs Astrid. Yucky.

Linda

Jak said...

I remember cicadas very well in Southern Africa. What I can't work out is why we heard them every rainy season, we were not aware they emerged only every 17 years till we saw it on a nature programme here in the UK. Maybe they have a different life cycle in Africa. I don't miss their noise though!!. x