Kingsbury Katydids
Saturday, July 30th, 2022 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioSo, as planned, I did go out for a sounding walk, at 12AM this morning. And this time I let the S8 record the whole walk, and I simply stopped and stood still when I found myself in a spot with interesting audio.
My goal, as it had been all week, was to get a good clip of adult, and juvenille field crickets chirping together in the same spot.
Between my methodological bungling all week, and the noise of air-conditioners, passing cars, and long freight train rolls... it's been way too hard to get that clip!
But I finally did get a short clip of it.
The track below leads with that, then fades to just juvenille field crickets and a chick bug. Then, in the second half we get to hear a juvenille and adult mole cricket back to back, showing that pitch difference.
The adult field cricket in the opening clip is nicely in the forefront, and his chirp is distinctly different from old Larry the Loner's distress beacon of late June and early July.
My theory says he's a lot more relaxed because he's among his peers in this clip, and was a nymph like them, just last week.
If my theory is right, this mixed-age chirping in late July won't last long, and we won't hear anything like this again until October.
The second clip that the intro fades into is just more juvenilles by themselves, to clarify what they sound like and show that in many spots there are still no adults around, but a chick bug happened to get into the clip, chicking twice... so that's always good!
As I've said before, chick bugs are still a complete mystery to me. I don't know if they're beetles or crickets, or something else. But they do say, "CHK!" and this was a good take of that.
Second half of the track is a few seconds of a juvenille mole cricket, fading into a clip of an adult mole cricket. The pitch difference between the two is easy to hear, and the bigger one also holds his call for a lot longer.
I wasn't expecting to get this, so it was a bonus!
------------{=0=}------------
But the REAL bonus of the post midnight walk was the Kingsbury Katydids!..
I was on the far side of my block, ready to circle back home when I heard them off to the northwest... somewhere nearby... katydids! I HAD to go investigate!
I have only ever heard katydids in the wide open spaces between towns... in tall grasses at lonely intersections between county highways... sitting at red lights, with the windows rolled down.
I have NEVER heard them in the neighborhoods, and assumed they just didn't exist in semi-urban environments.
But here, I was hearing them, in the middle of town... just a small group of them... which I tracked down to Kingsbury Avenue.
This track begins with a few of them engaged in the classic katydid argument... talking over one another... Some insisting that Katy did it, while others are insisting that Katy didn't do it!
And then it fades to just one katydid, just calling out for her, "Katy!... Katy!... Katy!..." as though, if he could summon her to the scene, she might be able to clear up the argument these tree-dwelling cousins of the crickets & grasshoppers have been debating since the dawn of history.
Most legends have it that murder is what Katy is accused of doing. But Katydids evolved 65-million years ago, so... she murdered the dinosaurs, if anything!
--<>--
I'm quite thrilled to have this track as a reference for the katydids' call, but I was just bowled over by the fact that they were in my own neighborhood, on a block very close to mine!
This could be unexpected evidence for my island-block theory!
0--------------------0
"I wonder how many other ecological quirks might be block specific?
Is the mix of percussionists, solists, and chorus singers I hear in my back yard through August and September, just a function of the peculiar success that hackberries and mulberries have enjoyed on this block?
Does it sound fundamentally different on other blocks where other plants and trees have established different profiles?"
0--------------------0
Kingsbury Avenue is actually a dead-end street that cuts a little more than halfway into a much larger island block, as pictured below...
My first clip in the above track is from the south sidewalk of this peculiar island block, and then I walked clockwise, all the way around, until I remembered Kingsbury was there, and went up nearly to the end of it to get the final clips of the track.
The katydids are definitely ONLY at the spot indicated above!
Now, maybe that could change with time, and I could find a lot more katydids all over town as the summer wears on.
But I kinda doubt it!.. because my block is very close to this, and I've never heard them on my block ever! And it seems highly unlikely these katydids could be some new arrivals on the scene.
Like Cicadas, Katydids cannot fly, and spend their whole lives high up in the treetops. The only time they'll walk any distance, is if they hear a larger chorus of katydids somewhere nearby.
My theory here, is that this is an isolated breeding population, left over from the early 1800s, when Aurora was still very rural at this distance from downtown... who managed to survive on this one block island, even though their peers went extinct on all neighboring islands!
The odd configuration of this island block, does make it unique. It should be two blocks. If Kingsbury Avenue went all the way through, it would be two normal sized blocks, for this part of town.
The fact that Kingsbury dead ends, halfway into the interior... says that something was going on here, back in the early days.
Kingsbury could have begun as an access road to a commercial site, before this island became residential.
Other blocks in town have these historic scars, of unfinished streets that began as access drives to gravel quarries, and such.
Perhaps this block was originally a tree or vegetable plantation that slowly got surrounded by development, with Kingsbury being the access drive.
Then it was sold and reformatted as residential lots, but some of those old trees remained... and some of that soil with the viable katydid eggs overwintering below, never got upset!
Those same old trees and that same old soil just got passed on to new owners, as the block became an island in the 20th century, and the katydids just persist there, even while they were wiped out everywhere else beyond!
------------{=0=}------------
The practice of block sounding only started a week ago, because I'd found that all the first crickets appear on the street, an not on the block interiors... so I had to take walks around the block to capture their progress on the street parkings.
That lead to this unexpected discovery of the Kingsbury Katydids!
And now, I've gotta keep this up!.. I've gotta revisit Kingsbury Island later in the summer to see if the katydid population has grown.
And I've got to go exploring other nearby islands to see if there are other unexpected bugs, sounding off in little enclaves.
--<>--
Lot's to do this season, in addition to just recording the back yard orchestra.
And speaking of them... I am STILL waiting for the leaf tappers to get here!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
My goal, as it had been all week, was to get a good clip of adult, and juvenille field crickets chirping together in the same spot.
Between my methodological bungling all week, and the noise of air-conditioners, passing cars, and long freight train rolls... it's been way too hard to get that clip!
But I finally did get a short clip of it.
The track below leads with that, then fades to just juvenille field crickets and a chick bug. Then, in the second half we get to hear a juvenille and adult mole cricket back to back, showing that pitch difference.
The adult field cricket in the opening clip is nicely in the forefront, and his chirp is distinctly different from old Larry the Loner's distress beacon of late June and early July.
My theory says he's a lot more relaxed because he's among his peers in this clip, and was a nymph like them, just last week.
If my theory is right, this mixed-age chirping in late July won't last long, and we won't hear anything like this again until October.
The second clip that the intro fades into is just more juvenilles by themselves, to clarify what they sound like and show that in many spots there are still no adults around, but a chick bug happened to get into the clip, chicking twice... so that's always good!
As I've said before, chick bugs are still a complete mystery to me. I don't know if they're beetles or crickets, or something else. But they do say, "CHK!" and this was a good take of that.
Second half of the track is a few seconds of a juvenille mole cricket, fading into a clip of an adult mole cricket. The pitch difference between the two is easy to hear, and the bigger one also holds his call for a lot longer.
I wasn't expecting to get this, so it was a bonus!
But the REAL bonus of the post midnight walk was the Kingsbury Katydids!..
I was on the far side of my block, ready to circle back home when I heard them off to the northwest... somewhere nearby... katydids! I HAD to go investigate!
I have only ever heard katydids in the wide open spaces between towns... in tall grasses at lonely intersections between county highways... sitting at red lights, with the windows rolled down.
I have NEVER heard them in the neighborhoods, and assumed they just didn't exist in semi-urban environments.
But here, I was hearing them, in the middle of town... just a small group of them... which I tracked down to Kingsbury Avenue.
This track begins with a few of them engaged in the classic katydid argument... talking over one another... Some insisting that Katy did it, while others are insisting that Katy didn't do it!
And then it fades to just one katydid, just calling out for her, "Katy!... Katy!... Katy!..." as though, if he could summon her to the scene, she might be able to clear up the argument these tree-dwelling cousins of the crickets & grasshoppers have been debating since the dawn of history.
Most legends have it that murder is what Katy is accused of doing. But Katydids evolved 65-million years ago, so... she murdered the dinosaurs, if anything!
I'm quite thrilled to have this track as a reference for the katydids' call, but I was just bowled over by the fact that they were in my own neighborhood, on a block very close to mine!
This could be unexpected evidence for my island-block theory!
Is the mix of percussionists, solists, and chorus singers I hear in my back yard through August and September, just a function of the peculiar success that hackberries and mulberries have enjoyed on this block?
Does it sound fundamentally different on other blocks where other plants and trees have established different profiles?"
Kingsbury Avenue is actually a dead-end street that cuts a little more than halfway into a much larger island block, as pictured below...
My first clip in the above track is from the south sidewalk of this peculiar island block, and then I walked clockwise, all the way around, until I remembered Kingsbury was there, and went up nearly to the end of it to get the final clips of the track.
The katydids are definitely ONLY at the spot indicated above!
Now, maybe that could change with time, and I could find a lot more katydids all over town as the summer wears on.
But I kinda doubt it!.. because my block is very close to this, and I've never heard them on my block ever! And it seems highly unlikely these katydids could be some new arrivals on the scene.
Like Cicadas, Katydids cannot fly, and spend their whole lives high up in the treetops. The only time they'll walk any distance, is if they hear a larger chorus of katydids somewhere nearby.
My theory here, is that this is an isolated breeding population, left over from the early 1800s, when Aurora was still very rural at this distance from downtown... who managed to survive on this one block island, even though their peers went extinct on all neighboring islands!
The odd configuration of this island block, does make it unique. It should be two blocks. If Kingsbury Avenue went all the way through, it would be two normal sized blocks, for this part of town.
The fact that Kingsbury dead ends, halfway into the interior... says that something was going on here, back in the early days.
Kingsbury could have begun as an access road to a commercial site, before this island became residential.
Other blocks in town have these historic scars, of unfinished streets that began as access drives to gravel quarries, and such.
Perhaps this block was originally a tree or vegetable plantation that slowly got surrounded by development, with Kingsbury being the access drive.
Then it was sold and reformatted as residential lots, but some of those old trees remained... and some of that soil with the viable katydid eggs overwintering below, never got upset!
Those same old trees and that same old soil just got passed on to new owners, as the block became an island in the 20th century, and the katydids just persist there, even while they were wiped out everywhere else beyond!
The practice of block sounding only started a week ago, because I'd found that all the first crickets appear on the street, an not on the block interiors... so I had to take walks around the block to capture their progress on the street parkings.
That lead to this unexpected discovery of the Kingsbury Katydids!
And now, I've gotta keep this up!.. I've gotta revisit Kingsbury Island later in the summer to see if the katydid population has grown.
And I've got to go exploring other nearby islands to see if there are other unexpected bugs, sounding off in little enclaves.
Lot's to do this season, in addition to just recording the back yard orchestra.
And speaking of them... I am STILL waiting for the leaf tappers to get here!
°¦}
