Messing with the Wildlife

Something, maybe the Cicadas, is messing with the wildlife, at least in my area. In the last few days, I have seen six rabbits, four deer, two snakes and many more squirrels then normal. I haven't seen more than one or two rabbits amd no deer or snakes in my housing area in at least 10 years. I am less than a mile away from a large wooded area, but since it filled in with houses between my house and the woods, I haven't seen much wildlife. I also noticed several posts about an unusual number of snakes in local lakes.

Just wondering if anyone else is seeing unusual patters in the wildlife?

Grumpy

Grumpy,
I live in the Suburbs in SouthEast Lexington and we are about a mile from the urban county development line. I just started seeing the Cicadas recently but have seen alot of Rabbits.
The birds are terrible this year! We have been dealing with bird poop on the cars all Spring and have started using fire crackers to hopefully scare them away. I'm ready to shoot these dang birds because they really are a nusiance. We have to use plastic bage to cover our side mirrors to ptrevent the birds from looking at itself and pooping down the side of the car.....daily.

Global warming, lol, sorry I couldn't resist.

Dude! Ha ha...

The deer on my place hang right to the tree line when they're usually in the pasture of the evening. I haven't seen a rabbit in two weeks.

I live withwoods on all four sides, the noise has been constant for the past week, and we are watching at least 5or 6 of these things in flight all the time, have not seen that many deer also.

When driving to Richmond today on I-75 the Cicada's were thick! I could hear them when driving 80mph with the windows up and the radio on especially around the thicker stands of trees. They hit the windshield two or three at a time when they were the thickest. It's odd to see a swarm of them since they are so big, the sides of the interstate were scattered with dead ones.

The wife and I were driving in her Escape the other day and we hit a black swarm of them. I swear the swarm of them must have been several hundred if not thousands and about 5 feet wide by about 10 feet tall. Never in my life have I seen that many in a group before, she didn't even notice them until she heard them hitting the windshield, she said what was that.....Duh.....

I wonder if the noise that is so loud is effecting the other wildlife, the deer are used to being able to hear danger when it gets close. Maybe that is why they are staying more in the wood lines than out in the fields.

[QUOTE=Grumpy;328806]Something, maybe the Cicadas, is messing with the wildlife, at least in my area. In the last few days, I have seen six rabbits, four deer, two snakes and many more squirrels then normal. I haven't seen more than one or two rabbits amd no deer or snakes in my housing area in at least 10 years. I am less than a mile away from a large wooded area, but since it filled in with houses between my house and the woods, I haven't seen much wildlife. I also noticed several posts about an unusual number of snakes in local lakes.

Just wondering if anyone else is seeing unusual patters in the wildlife?

Grumpy[/QUOTE]
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I read in the newspaper that this is the 17-year cicadas; a fluke of nature happened and they hatched out in 14 years. I don't understand that one.

My house is surrounded by trees. I have a bird feeder and a large birdbath under some trees in the back yard. The cicadas have been hatching and singing (?) for a couple of weeks. The birds have increased in large numbers and are fun to watch. They are gorging themselves on big, fat juicy cicadas and it's hilarious watching as they try to feed them to the babies. They are not eating bird seed but I'm having to fill the birdbath twice a day. Even my Jack Russell Terrier is killing cicadas. Does anyone know if their sound hurts the ears of dogs because she pins her ears back like something is hurting when she is outside?

There was a real good segment on Kentucky Afield this week with biologist John MacGregor talking about this year's cicadas. He said this is "Brood 14," which last emerged in 1991. And there are actually 3 different species that emerge the same year.

I just watched as six of them flew by the widow, there is always at least one of them air bound. On the lakes the past watched the struggle for them to get airbourne after hitting the water, saw some nice fish engulfing them also. A guy I talked to said he caught some shell crackers that were almost gourged on them. One thing I have noticed, very few cardinals at the feeders, before the invasion they were as thick as flys. I'm sort of getting used to the sound, drowns out the quiet lol. Butthen I liked the constant noise of the whippor wills also, even thought my wife sais they wouldn't let her sleep!

[QUOTE=Grumpy;328806]Something, maybe the Cicadas, is messing with the wildlife, at least in my area. In the last few days, I have seen six rabbits, four deer, two snakes and many more squirrels then normal. I haven't seen more than one or two rabbits amd no deer or snakes in my housing area in at least 10 years. I am less than a mile away from a large wooded area, but since it filled in with houses between my house and the woods, I haven't seen much wildlife. I also noticed several posts about an unusual number of snakes in local lakes.

Just wondering if anyone else is seeing unusual patters in the wildlife?

Grumpy[/QUOTE]

Maybe we're getting ready to have a major earthquake. I've heard animals can tell and will go roaming.