Another Cicada Summer

Last year we were lucky enough to have a bunch of extra cicadas thanks to their cyclical nature.  This year we just had the standard annual cicadas.  Like last year, we've had a lot of fun this summer with them.  But it's been more so this year, because Joshua was more brave than last year.  This year, he was much more willing to have the cicadas crawl on him than he was last year.  He was really excited about being brave about that.  Another thing we learned about this year was the difference between the "boy" and "girl" cicadas.  I googled the way to tell the difference when looking at them, and I taught him too.  I also found out that it's only the males that buzz.  So previously when we caught one that didn't buzz when I caught it, we just thought it was a calm one.  Instead, we now know it's a female.  Like last summer, a frequent request from Joshua has been, "Dad, can we go in the back yard and try to catch a cicada?"  Then we go out and scan the trees to see if there's a cicada that is low enough on the tree to catch.  If it's not buzzing (which would give it away as a male), he tries to tell by looking if it's a male who is not buzzing (they often sit quietly) or a female.  Then I catch it if I can, and we hold it for awhile and let it walk on our shirts or arms.  By hovering a hand a few inches above them, they typically don't fly away and will walk around on you for awhile, but eventually we let them go.  Clara never has any interest in them, despite Joshua encouraging her.  But Hannah this year has been interested in holding them, though it took her awhile to get over her initial fear of them.  But she did it, and now she's willing to hold them.  She also applied her confidence to other insects, and as you can see in the last picture, she's even holding a big grasshopper.  The cicadas are almost done for the season, so here's a collection of some of the pictures I took.