Cicadas are cool insects and great bird food. The Brood V cicadas that are
out this year don't get any closer to us than maybe Augusta or Bath
counties, though the regular (annual) cicadas are out around here now. I
think the birds like them all, annual, 17-year, or otherwise, and don't
care which species they are (!) but of course with the big emergences you
get lots more food in one location.
Here's a great cicada web site:
http://www.cicadamania.com/
Mike
On Sun, Jun 5, 2016 at 4:30 PM, Amanda Dymacek <amanda.dymacek@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I don’t see any posts in eBird, but there has been some chatter on the WV
email groups about seeing kites up there in conjunction with their cicada
17-yr cycle. Apparently, they’ve got the bugs by the bucket-full and the
birds have followed. We will keep our eyes peeled!
Amanda
On Jun 5, 2016, at 9:22 AM, C. Michael Stinson <myrmecocichla@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Hey folks -
Some of you know about this already but I thought it wouldn't hurt to
spread the word. Two days ago (Friday morning) I saw a 1st-spring plumage
Mississippi Kite soaring over Little Buffalo Creek between Back
Hampden-Sydney Road and US 15. I was on private property at the time, a
horse ranch reached from Back Hampden-Sydney Road.
The bird flew away to the south. I drive in that direction and looked
around a bit but did not see it again. I was at the ranch again yesterday
for about 5 hours and did not see the bird.
First-spring birds are often the ones involved in spring "overshoots,"
which this could have been, and those birds don't necessarily linger in an
area. But it's worth keeping an eye open if you are in that area, just in
case the bird is hanging around.
So we now have three records for MIKI in Prince Edward County - May 2014,
May 2015, and June 2016.
Mike
--
C. Michael Stinson
Dillwyn, VA
