A way out from darkness

The Mojave tell a story of the earliest days when the First People lived in perpetual darkness deep within the earth. Desperate for a better life, they sent a hummingbird out to find light. Searching the cracks and crevices of their underground world, the hummingbird finally finds a difficult, twisting way to climb to the upper world of sunlight. The First People followed this path to the surface of the world, where their sons and daughters now live.

The cicadas have started their summer chattering, and I was out on the deck Sunday trying to do a bit of cicada spotting. I love the way cicadas look, like little tanks with wings of transparent organza. I love the way they sound, like cheesy sound effects from a monster movie from the fifties. And I especially love the way they fly, like oversized, hesitant bullets.

I could hear the cicadas in the oaks in front of and to the side of the deck, so I was watching those in particular hoping to see a cicada fly by. Several times I caught a glimpse of cicada from the corner of my out at the lower branch of the oak about fifty feet from the side of the deck, but I never focused quickly enough to actually get a good look at the bugger.

I was just starting to get suspicious because the cicada kept appearing at the same point of the branch time after time when it appeared again. I watched it fly up to the branch, stop just short of landing on the branch, hover for a split second, and then land. It stayed about fifteen seconds and then shot off in a blur.

Cicadas don’t hover. The only time cicadas fly fast enough to blur is when they’re caught in a tornado. This was no cicada. The Prof brought out his binoculars for me, and I kept watch on the branch. In about fifteen minutes the not-a-cicada returned, landed on the branch, and hopped over to a tiny nest, where it lingered for only a few seconds before taking off again.

I refilled the hummingbird feeder and am cursing the heat that keeps me from spending my afternoons on the deck watching mother ruby-throat care for her chicks.