Katydid...Katy-didn't

The sounds of the woods come from a great variety of wildlife including birds, squirrels, insects, pets, and sometimes the neighbor's "target practice".

One of my favorite sounds this time of year is the raucous katydids. I read somewhere that their song sounds similar to alternating accusations and denials of "katydid - katydidn't".

However you describe it, these cricket-related insects create so much noise on midsummer nights that their din makes our woods sound like something out of Africa.

Katydids produce songs by rubbing a "scraper" (the sharp edge of a front wing) against a "file" (the rough edge on the bottom of the other front wing). This process--known as "stridulating"--makes a series of chirps (as in the cricket), or results in that self-naming phrase of the katydid.

As with crickets, calling rates among katydids varies with the temperature, so you can always get an accurate weather report by solving the equation T=(C+161)/3, with T being the Temperature and C the number of calls per minute. This won't work in winter, of course, since all the stridulating katydids will be dead, so unless you're a classroom teacher helping students with math skills, maybe it would just be easier to buy a new thermometer.

Enjoy their evening songs while they last. The first frost will quiet them until next year. I found this noisy visitor on the kitchen window.