Martha's Vineyard Cicadas Day 2

Martha's Vineyard Cicadas Day 2

I started off the day deciding to explore a little bit more of the island. I ended up in Edgartown and parked the car and walked around a bit to see what there was to see. Edgartown is a very nice and quaint little town on the western most end of the island and it was hopping with tourists. I walked along the beach for a while snapping a few pictures and taking some videos but eventually, I decided to see what I could get into regarding finding spots to hunt for cicadas.

I soon discovered that there were very few places that I could go that weren't private roads and/or private property. I ended up at the first of many different wildlife refuge areas scattered around the island. These areas are places owned by the Land Bank of Martha's Vineyard. Their mission is to purchase and save areas of Martha's Vineyard so that it is not overrun by development. In this way some of Martha's Vineyard's native habitat, wildlife and plant diversity can be protected.

This helps individuals like you and me who enjoy outdoor sports like swimming, hiking, biking, horseback riding, picnicing in addition to other outdoor sports. Each area controlled by the land bank offers different points of interest and are unique to each other.

Today, I hiked the Waskosim's Rock Reservation on the border of Tisbury and Chilmark. While I heard many T. lyricens and a few T. canicularis I heard very few T. auletes but they were there. Unfortunately, the trees at this wildlife preserve were too high for my net to reach and the undergrowth was extensive. However, I did manage to get a recording of T. auletes calling in Chilmark. Click the thumbnail to the left to watch and listen to the video.

Cicada Killers Spotted!

I guess where there's cicadas there are bound to be Cicada Killers. I spotted a single female at Waskosim's Rock Reservation. There were two burrows along the blue trail in an open meadow. The wasp to me appeared to be on the rather large size. Unfortunately, it was so quick I couldn't get a decent picture of it. However, I did managed to get an image of its rather large burrow. I can add this to my database of Cicada Killer sightings in addition T. auletes here.

Even More Cicada Killer Burrows!

In the evening after dinner back at the camp site, I decided to hike another of the land bank's wildlife refuges. This one is known as Trade Wind Fields Perserve and is located in Oak Bluffs. It is a grassland plain which used to contain a grass air strip that was used many years ago. Today, some small aircraft land here from time to time but I didn't witness any during my stay. There are a series of trails and dog owners can take their dogs here and let them run off-leash. I didn't hear any T. auletes here but I did hear T. lyricen. This doesn't mean that T. auletes wasn't here though because it was rather cool this evening which may have prevented them from calling.

But I did notice a cicada killer flying around and happened on a series of three burrows here. I couldn't tell if this was a lek or if these burrows were perhaps made by just this one female. Still it was pretty significant as this area was across the island from the last series of burrows I discovered.

There's not much more to report on this day. I did eventually make it back to the Cemetery again on Pine Street. The T. lyricens again were absolutely screaming but they were too high to catch. I think I need to start to hunt in the short scrub oak trees. These are everywhere, even on private property. I decided that I would concentrate in these areas. The scrub oaks do not get much higher than 20 feet. I think it is due to the sandy soil.