The Periodical Cicadas Are Back! I Found Them On My First Hike In State Game Lands 52 In Berks County.

 

I was expecting to see some cicadas this year here in Pennsylvania.  Well,  I do every Summer. The annual or dog day cicada nymphs  emerge  every year in  mid  Summer from their 2 year life underground where they were  feeding on roots. The crawl form the soil and molt into their adult phase.  The males attract the females with their loud buzzing produced by a specialized organ called a tybal.  After mating the female lays her eggs on trees and the young nymphs crawl underground. It was the buzzing of these annual cicadas, in midland late Summer,  grew  to love as a child.  We heard their buzzing roaming the woods near my home in Luzerne County. Good days they were.

This year I was also hoping to also see some  periodical cicadas. Their life cycle is similar to the annual cicadas except they remain burrowed underground much longer, some for 13 years but most for 17 years.  These cicadas are smaller than the annual cicadas and have beautiful big red eyes. It wasn’t until the year 2013 I was first heard and saw  the periodical cicadas. I heard these  cicadas from Brood II on a walk in Carbon County.  There are about 20 different broods of these cicadas each emerging in large numbers in different areas of the country.  Brood XIV was expected to  emerge this year.  A friend, who also loves these alien looking insects,  and I were following the first sighting of the brood on our iPhone cicada apps.  Yes such an app exists.

 I was going to look for copperhead and rattlesnakes last Sunday.   However, it  was supposed to be overcast  here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, not good snake hunting weather.  I saw a few  cicada sightings on the app  map. They were  near Reading.  So  I decided to hike in State Game Lands 52  in Berks County. I took the 1 1/2 hour,  7o mile drive early Sunday morning  and arrived under sunny skies. I was regretting my decision thinking I could have found some snakes sunning themselves on the rocks in Carbon County. My regrets ended as soon as I opened the door of my Jeep and  I heard the loud, high pitched buzzing or whining sound  of cicadas in the tree tops!

At first I wasn’t finding the cicadas, only their discarded skins.

However, when I started following the trail I soon found the noisy critters. I picked a few up. Some didn’t mind and walked across my hand. Other vigorously vibrated their wings trying to escape.

It was my first time visiting   these Games Lands. They are located just off of Chestnut Hills Road   located  I followed an old grass covered road up a ridge. I was glad I applied a lot of insect and tick repellent since I think this would be a trail with a lot of ticks. My repellent worked and I didn’t see any.

At first I saw a few cicadas under the mostly maple trees along the trail.

 I  sppn came to a meadow  on one side of the trail which may have bee an old  farm field.. There were now thousands  of cicadas in the meadow and surrounding  trees.  They were everywhere, on the plants, tree branches and fluttering in the air. I hit the jackpot and stumbled on a large brood.

The sound of the cicadas was now loud and intense and I loved it. And I loved seeing  these  cute little critters. 

I thought about what I was doing in 2008 when their parents emerged from their 17 years of living underground. . And in 1991 when their grand  parents emerged and  in 1974 when their great-grandparents emerged and  lived and died on this mountain side. . I wasn’t alive when their great-grandparents emerged. I learned that this Brood, Brood 14, was first recorded by the Pilgrams in 1634! . It is amazing that this cycle has been repeated for millions of years.

There were would be cicadas everywhere along my 2 1/2 mile hike. The trail continued up hill through the maple trees.Lush green ferns grew along the trail.

I was surprised there wasn’t much bird activity’. I only heard and saw a lot of ovenbirds, this one feeding on some caterpillars,

a female northern cardinal

and a few hermit thrushes.

I saw a lot more cicadas. They were everywhere.  I enjoyed seeing  them fluttering in the air along the trail.Some, I think, had egg sacs which the female would deposit on tree branches. The nymphs would hatch and burrow underground for the next 17 years.

The trail continued up the hill side and took me under older trees. The trail was not just dirt under the sahde of the trees. Many  ferns grew along the trail.

Native wild basil,

and invasive mock strawberries grew on the trail. These mock strawberries look delicious but are dry and not edible.

At the top of the mountian the trail turned south and became grassy again.

In addition to the cicadas I also saw  a few other insects including this  ebony jewelwing damselwing,

and I believe this common white wave  moth.

The trail continued on the hill top for almost a mile. It then turned west again and entered another large meadow.

This was the largest concentration of the cicadas  I had seen on my  5 mile hike. . They were everywhere. 

I saw then on  leaves,

clover flowers,

and daisies.

They were even crawling up my legs and landing on my head.  I also saw a few birds in the meadow, including this indigo bunting, this  is  a juvenile,

a few eastern towhees,

and a black and white warbler.  Here is a link to a gallery on my web site with some more photos of the birds I saw on my hike.  State Game Lands 52 birds June 8 2025.

In addition to the  birds and cicadas, I also saw some insects in the meadow, including an eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly,

a great spangled fritillary, 

a little wood satyr butterfly , this

old  spicebush swallowtail butterfly, and

a lot of  common whitetail dragonfly. I am no expert  so I hope these identifications  are correct.

The trail now descended the mountain top and here, for the first time the swarms of cicadas were dissipating. The hitch pitched buzzing got less intense but was still heard in the distance.

I walked another 1/2 mile and was now out about 2 1/2 miles and decided to head back.When I returned to the open field there was even more cicadas on the plants, trees and ground.You could see dozens fluttering from the ground and up to the tree tops to mate. Here is a link to a gallery on my web site with some more photos of the the cicadas and insects  I saw on my hike.  State Game Lands 52  cicadas and insects  June 8 2025.

I was planning on spending more time photographing them, and hopefully some birds. It takes a lot of time to capture photos of birds and I may spend 5 hours walking 5 miles on a hike. However, once again, as it has been often this Spring, there was rain in the forecast and I walked back quickly when I saw clouds move in.

It was a quiet hike back, I enjoyed the cicadas fluttering everywhere and loud buzzing in the tree tops. There wasn’t much bird activity, mostly the loud calls of the ovenbirds and a few red eyed vireos,.

I saw a man and a dog walked up the trail , the only person I saw in my 5 mile hike,. He lived nearby and we had a nice conversation about the trail and surrounding woodlands.Of course the clouds cleared as I made it back to my Jeep. I decided to leave the game lands anyway since I had hiked 7 miles ( 2 miles earlier at home) and I was tired and hungry. Here is a link to a gallery on my web site with some more photos from my five mile hike.  State Game Lands 52  June 8 2025.

I don’t think I will return to this trail anytime soon but, I hope to be back in 17 years.  I  hope, God willing, to greet the offspring of the cicadas I heard, saw and held today when they emerge form their 17 years underground homes.

I will now wait for the bittersweet sounds of  their cousins, the annul cicadas, in early August. I love their  buzzing too, but it is bittersweet because I know it signals the end of Summer, my favorite season. I hope, before than, to do a lot more exploring in the woods of our Commonwealth, and sharing the beauty of nature I find.  

“Do you know the legend about cicadas? They say they are the souls of poets who cannot keep quiet because, when they were alive, they never wrote the poems they wanted to”.  John Berger

“The story is that once upon a time these creatures [the cicadas] were men–men of an age before there were any Muses–and that when the latter came into the world, and music made its appearance, some of the people of those days were so thrilled with pleasure that they went on singing, and quite forgot to eat and drink until they actually died without noticing it. From them in due course sprang the race of cicadas, to which the Muses have granted the boon of needing no sustenance right from their birth, but of singing from the very first, without food or drink, until the day of their death…”  as told by Socrates in Plato’s dialogue Phaedrus