2013 has been an awesome year for cicadas. Here’s a look back at my favorite Brood II moments.
- My 17 Year Cicada sneakers:
- The They’re Baaack! Return of the 17-year Cicadas exhibit at The Staten Island Museum.
- Meeting Ed Johnson of the Staten Island Museum.
- Being interviewed by and appearing in Wired Magazine.
- This April Fools Day joke (that no one believed).
- Hipster Cicada
- Cicada Ron Swanson
- Keep Calm, They’re only 17 Year Cicadas
- Getting 7,500 visits from Reddit in a single day (April 7th).
- Finding the first nymph on April 16th under a garden slate, not ready to emerge.
- Finding the first cicada chimneys on May 10th.
- Giving a presentation about cicadas at musician/naturalist/philosopher/professor David Rothenberg’s “Richard Robinson: Song of the Cicada (World Premiere), Insect Music, based on the calls, chirps and clicks of various insects” event in New York City.
- Finding and photographing Magicicada septendecula, thanks to Elias Bonaro’s keen hearing.
- My sister’s chihuahua discovering a cicada nymph.
- Cicada tracking in New York state.
- An interview with Sonja Beeker of the German radio program Neonlicht.
- The Oklahoma Brood II emergence. A lot of us didn’t expect it, but Oklahoma residents did. Add another state to the Brood II map!
- Shooting lots of cicada video for the site
- Observing the Magicicada cassini’s “musical chairs” calling and flying routine, captured in this photo by Roy Troutman.
- Having Roy and Michelle Troutman visit New Jersey (I think Michelle enjoyed the beach more than the cicadas).
- Going cicada hunting with Roy Troutman and Elias Bonaros
- The Joy of Six Legged Sex event at the Staten Island Museum, featuring John Cooley and Ed Johnson. Roy, Michelle, Elias and David Rothenberg were also in attendance.
- Going cicada hunting in Staten Island with Elias and Chris Simon.
- Going cicada hunting with John Cooley, David Rothenberg, and a crew from the New York Times, and ending up at my folk’s place in Metuchen.
- Fighting back against companies that sell pesticide to kill cicadas.
- Discovering that the periodical cicadas along the shore of Staten Island survived Superstorm Sandy.
- Meeting cicada filmmaker Sam Orr.
- All the reports, comments, Tweets, and cicada photos sent to us by Cicada Mania readers. You make it all worthwhile.
- The Finneytown, Ohio acceleration… technically not Brood II, but…
- All the cool cicada community science opportunities presented by magicicada.org, the Simon Lab, the Urban Buzz Project, Gene Kritsky and Radiolab.
I’m looking forward to the Brood III and XXII emergences next year, but I don’t know if they’ll be as fun as Brood II 2013.
