
With Periodical Cicadas Gone, Here Come the Annual Cicadas…Right on Schedule!

A Natural History of Conewago Falls—The Waters of Three Mile Island
While the heat and humidity of early summer blankets the region, Brood XIV Periodical Cicadas are wrapping up their courtship and breeding cycle for 2025. We’ve spent the past week visiting additional sites in and near the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed where their emergence is evident.
We begin in York County just to the west of the river and Conewago Falls in mostly forested terrain located just southeast of Gifford Pinchot State Park. Within this area, often called the Conewago Hills, a very localized population of cicadas could be heard in the woodlands surrounding the scattered homes along Bull Road. Despite the dominant drone of an abundance of singing Pharaoh Periodical Cicadas, we were able to hear and record the courtship song of a small number of the rare Little Seventeen-year Cicadas. Their lawn sprinkler-like pulsating songs help mate-seeking males penetrate the otherwise overwhelming chorus of the Pharaoh cicadas in the area.
From the Conewago Hills we moved northwest into the section of southern Cumberland County known as South Mountain. Here, Pharaoh Periodical Cicadas were widespread in ridgetop forests along the Appalachian Trail, particularly in the area extending from Long Mountain in the east through Mount Holly to forests south of King’s Gap Environmental Education Center in the west.
While on South Mountain, we opted for a side trip into the neighboring Potomac watershed of Frederick County, Maryland, where these hills ascend to greater altitude and are known as the Blue Ridge Mountains, a name that sticks with them all the way through Shenandoah National Park, the Great Smoky Mountains, and to their southern terminus in northwestern Georgia. We found a fragmented emergence of Pharaoh Periodical Cicadas atop the Catoctin Mountain section of the Blue Ridge just above the remains of Catoctin Furnace, again on lands that had been timbered to make charcoal to fuel iron production prior to their protection as vast expanses of forest.
Back in Pennsylvania, we’re on our way to the watersheds of the northernmost tributaries of the lower Susquehanna’s largest tributary, the Juniata River. There, we found Brood XIV cicadas more widespread and in larger numbers than occurred at previous sites. Both Pharaoh and Cassin’s Periodical Cicadas were seen and heard along Jack’s Mountain and the Kishacoquillas Creek north of Lewistown/Burnham in Mifflin County. To the north of the Kishacoquillas Valley and Stone Mountain in northernmost Huntingdon County, the choruses of the two species were again widespread, particularly along the forest edges in Greenwood Furnace State Park, Rothrock State Forest, and adjacent areas of the Standing Stone Creek watershed.
Within the last 48 hours, we visited one last location in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed where Brood XIV Periodical Cicadas have emerged during 2025. In the anthracite coal country of Northumberland County, a flight of Pharaoh Periodical Cicadas is nearing its end. We found them to be quite abundant in forested areas of Zerbe Run between Big and Little Mountains around Trevorton and on the wooded slopes of Mahanoy Mountain south of nearby Shamokin. Line Mountain south of Gowen City had a substantial emergence as well.
To chart our travels, we’ve put together this map plotting the occurrence of significant flights of Periodical Cicadas during the 2025 emergence. Unlike the more densely distributed Brood X cicadas of 2021, the range of Brood XIV insects is noticeably fragmented, even in areas that are forested. We found it interesting how frequently we found Brood XIV cicadas on lands used as sources of lumber to make charcoal for fueling nineteenth-century iron furnace operations.
Well, that’s a wrap. Please don’t forget to check out our new Cicadas page by clicking the “Cicadas” tab at the top of this page. Soon after the Periodical Cicadas are gone, the annual cicadas will be emerging and our page can help you identify the five species found regularly in the lower Susquehanna valley. ‘Til next time, keep buzzing!
Here are some sights and sounds from the ongoing emergence of Brood XIV Periodical Cicadas in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed.
We begin in the easternmost spur of the lower basin where a sizeable emergence of cicadas can be seen and heard in the woodlands surrounding the headwaters of the Conestoga River in Berks County north of Morgantown. This flight extends east into Chester County and the French Creek drainage of the Schuylkill River watershed on State Game Lands 43 north of Elverson and consists of Pharaoh Periodical Cicadas (Magicicada septendecim), the most common species among 17-year broods.
From Route 82 north of Elverson to the west through the forested areas along Route 10 north of Morgantown and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, we found an abundance of Cassin’s Periodical Cicadas (Magicicada cassini) calling among the Pharaohs. This mix of Pharaoh and Cassin’s Periodical Cicadas extends west along the north side of the turnpike into Lancaster County and State Game Lands 52 on Black Creek north of Churchtown.
Further west in Cornwall, Lebanon County, a Brood XIV emergence can be found on similar forested terrain: the Triassic hills of the Newark Basin—rich in iron ore and renowned for furnace operations during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Pharaoh Periodical Cicadas were the only species heard among this population that extends from Route 72 east through the woodlands along Route 322 into the northern edge of State Game Lands 156 in Lancaster County.
On the west side of the Susquehanna, yet another isolated population of Brood XIV Periodical Cicadas can be found in Perry County, just south of Duncannon on State Game Lands 170 on the slopes of “Cove Mountain”, the canoe-shaped convergence of the western termini of Peters and Second Mountains.
Pharaoh Periodical Cicadas dominated this Perry County chorus,…
…but we did detect at least one Cassin’s Cicada trying to find a mate.
Not to say they aren’t present, but we have yet to detect the rarest species, Magicicada septendecula, the “Little Seventeen-year Cicada”, among the various populations of Brood XIV Periodical Cicadas emerging in the lower Susquehanna valley. For the coming two weeks or so until this brood is gone for another 17 years, the search continues.
For more on both annual and periodical cicada species in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed, be sure to click the “Cicadas” tab at the top of this page!
Just in time for the Flag Day/Father’s Day weekend, the Jordanella floridae we raise here at susquehannawildlife.net headquarters to help control hair algae in our planted aquaria are beginning to spawn.
In the wild, Jordanella floridae inhabits a variety of vegetated tropical wetlands and backwaters on the Florida peninsula. The species was first described there on Lake Munroe in 1879 by George Brown Goode and Tarleton Hoffman Bean, both of whom spent time working for the Smithsonian National Museum and the United States Fish Commission, the latter a forerunner of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Goode and Bean collaborated frequently, chronicling the occurrence of freshwater species like J. floridae as well as marine ichthyofauna. In 1896, the duo published Oceanic Ichthyology, an extensive study of pelagic and deep-sea fishes. Each experienced a prestigious career and has had numerous fish species named after him.
One of the earliest non-native fish species to be widely released into North American waterways was the Common Carp. Stocks brought to the United States were likely sourced from populations already naturalized throughout much of western Europe after introductions originating from the fish’s native range in Eurasia, probably including the Danube and other watersheds east through the Volga. In western Europe, the species promised to be an abundant and easily cultivated food source. Under the same premise, carp were transported to the United States during the early 1800s and widely introduced into streams, lakes, and rivers throughout the country.
Common Carp thrive in nutrient-rich waters, particularly those subjected to sewage discharge and agricultural runoff, conditions which were already prevalent during the Common Carp’s initial introduction and have remained widespread ever since. Within these polluted streams, lakes, and ponds, introduced carp feed aggressively on benthic organisms and plants, stirring up decaying organic matter (mulm) from the substrate. This process raises turbidity in the water column and releases excessive amounts of the nutrient phosphorus resulting in unusually large algal blooms. Algal blooms can block sunlight from the longer-lived oxygen-producing vascular plants that grow in submerged environs. Growing beneath a dense cloud or blanket of algae can compromise the vigor of oxygen-producing vascular plants and disable their biochemical functions within the aquatic ecosystem. As the short-lived algae die, the bacteria that decay them begin to place increased oxygen demands on the water. With less oxygen being produced by both the vascular plants and the algae, and with oxygen consumption increased by the activity of decomposers, conditions can become fatal for fish and other organisms. This process is known as eutrophication. Because Common Carp are among the species most tolerant of eutrophic conditions, they tend to thrive in the conditions they create while the native fishes perish.
Common Carp spawn in the spring, usually from late April through June, when the water temperature is as low as 58 degrees and as high as 83 degrees Fahrenheit. This activity is often triggered by a rapid increase in water temperature. In a small lake, this may be brought on by a string of sunny days in late April or May. On larger streams and rivers, the temperature spike that initiates the spawn may not occur until warm rains and runoff enter the stream during June.
Common Carp are one of the most widely farmed and eaten fish in all the world. Here in the United States, they were introduced beginning two hundred years ago because they were favorable to the palate, grew to large size quickly, and were a source of much needed food. Today, the Common Carp is seldom found on the American dinner plate. Yet, pound for pound, it is one of the most abundant fish in many of our waters, particularly in man-made lakes. Like some of our other most invasive species—including Blue Catfish, Flathead Catfish, and Northern Snakehead—Common Carp are perhaps the most edible of our freshwater fishes. For many cultures, they are an important staple. For others, they are a delicacy or holiday treat. In America, they do horrendous damage to aquatic ecosystems following establishment as a food crop that almost never gets harvested. Did you realize that on the internet, there are literally hundreds of recipes and culinary videos available to show you how to prepare delicious dishes made with Common Carp? It’s true. And for the cost of a fishing license, you can catch all you want, usually several pounds at a time. So why not give the marine fisheries a break? Take the big leap and learn to eat invasive freshwater species instead.
With temperatures finally climbing to seasonable levels and with stormy sun filtering through the yellow-brown smoke coming our way courtesy of wildfires in Alberta and other parts of central Canada, we ventured out to see what might be basking in our local star’s refracted rays…
Its been four years to the day since we posted our account of the big Brood X Periodical Cicada flight of 2021 in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed. With the Brood XIV clan of 17-year Periodical Cicadas getting ready fill the June air with their choruses in scattered parts of Pennsylvania’s Berks, Centre, Clinton, Franklin, Huntingdon, Juniata, Lancaster, Mifflin, Perry, Schuylkill, Snyder, Union, and York Counties right now, we thought it an appropriate time to open a new “Cicada” page here on the website. Included is a list of both the annually and periodically emerging species found in the lower Susquehanna valley, as well as a copy of the article and ID photos from the 2021 occurrence of Brood X. In coming months, we’ll be adding photos and maybe some sound clips of the different annual cicadas as well, so remember to check back from time to time for more content.
In the short term, we’re going to pay a visit to the Brood XIV territory and will bring you updates as we get them. Until then, be sure to click the new “Cicadas” tab at the top of this page to brush up on your ID of the three species of 17-year Periodical Cicadas.
Here at susquehannawildlife.net headquarters, we really enjoy looking back in time at old black-and-white pictures. We even have an old black-and-white television that still operates quite well. But on a nice late-spring day, there’s no sense sitting around looking at that stuff when we could be outside tracking down some sightings of a few wonderful animals.
Renowned for its smooth, light-gray bark and its large size, the American Beech is one the most easily recognized trees found in climax forests throughout the lower Susquehanna valley. Preferring rich soils, this shade tolerant native produces an abundance of nutritious nuts for wildlife including deer, turkey, grouse, squirrels, woodpeckers, and a variety of songbirds.
If you’ve visited a stand of beech trees lately, you may have noticed that the canopy seems a little sparse in comparison to the foliage of the oaks, poplars, and other hardwood species in the vicinity.
A closer look reveals the cause. And yes, it’s big, big trouble.
While treatment for BLD is possible, it must be done early. Protecting an entire stand in a forest can be prohibitively expensive, but if you have a specimen tree or small grove you think you might like to save, click here for a Penn State Extension guide with more information.
Here’s a short preview of some of the finds you can expect during an outing in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed’s forests this week…
Currently in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed, you can find these five species of herbaceous plants in full bloom. As they grow, they and others like them help to purify waters within their respective ecosystems by taking up nutrients—namely, the nitrogen and phosphorus that can lead to detrimental algal blooms and eutrophication in ponds, lakes, streams, and rivers.
Let us travel through time for just a little while to recall those sunny, late-spring days down on the farm—back when the rural landscape was a quiet, semi-secluded realm with little in the way of traffic, housing projects, or industrialized agriculture. Those among us who grew up on one of these family homesteads, or had friends who did, remember the joy of exploring the meadows, thickets, soggy springs, and woodlots they protected.
For many of us, farmland was the first place we encountered and began to understand wildlife. Vast acreage provided an abundance of space to explore. And the discovery of each new creature provided an exciting experience.
Today, high-intensity agriculture, relentless mowing, urban sprawl, and the increasing costs and demand for land have all conspired to seriously deplete habitat quality and quantity for many of the species we used to see on the local farm. Unfortunately for them, farm wildlife has largely been the victim of modern economics.
For old time’s sake, we recently passed a nostalgic afternoon at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area examining what maintenance of traditional farm habitat has done and can do for breeding birds. Join us for a quick tour to remember how it used to be at the farm next door…
For many animals, an adequate shelter is paramount for their successful reproduction. Here’s a sample of some of the lower Susquehanna valley’s nest builders in action…
After repeatedly hearing the songs of these Neotropical migrants from among the foliage, we were finally able to get a look at them—but it required persistent effort.
Sometimes we have to count ourselves lucky if we see just one in five, ten, or even twenty of the birds we hear in the cover of the forest canopy or thicket. But that’s what makes this time of year so rewarding for the dedicated observer. The more time you spend out there, the more you’ll eventually discover. See you afield!
Neotropical birds are fairly well acquainted with repetitive periods of thundershowers. With that in mind, we decided not to waste this stormy Tuesday by remaining indoors.
We hope you enjoyed our walk in the rain as much as we did. If you venture out on a similar excursion, please remember this. The majority of the wild animals around us have busy lives, particularly at this time of year. Most don’t take a day off just because it rains—that includes ticks.
As the Flowering Dogwoods remind us, it’s time for adult sea-run shad and other fishes to ascend the Susquehanna to spawn. So yep, we’re off to Fisherman’s Park on the river’s west shoreline below Conowingo Dam in Harford County, Maryland, to check it out.
Here’s a look at six native shrubs and trees you can find blooming along forest edges in the lower Susquehanna valley right now.
Local old timers might remember hearing folklore that equates the northward advance of the blooming of the Flowering Dogwoods with the progress of the American Shad’s spring spawning run up the river. While this is hardly a scientific proclamation, it is likely predicated on what had been some rather consistent observation prior to the construction of the lower Susquehanna’s hydroelectric dams. In fact, we’ve found it to be a useful way to remind us that it’s time for a trip to the river shoreline below Conowingo Dam to witness signs of the spring fish migration each year. We’re headed that way now and will summarize our sightings for you in days to come.
Despite what seemed to be a chilly early spring, the bright green leaves that unfold to close the canopy of our deciduous forests were dense and casting shade by the last days of April. For northbound migrants, this fresh foliage provides the cover they need for foraging, resting, and, for those that will stick around to breed in the lower Susquehanna valley, nesting.
We recall many occasions when sparse foliage during the first days of May seemed to delay the big push of Neotropical species, but the seasonal arrival of these birds in 2025 is thus far mostly ahead of schedule. This absence of delay is due in part to the lushness of the oaks. Some stands have not only leafed out, but are finished flowering and have added up to 12 inches of new branch growth. We spent these early hours of May among the oaks. Here’s a look at the Neotropical migrants and other species we found…
The movements of our migratory birds typically continue through much of the month of May. And peak numbers of Neotropical species often occur sometime during the second week of the month. But with habitat at the ready, favorable flight conditions could facilitate quick arrival and/or passage of the bulk of the remaining migrants during the coming week. You may want to venture out sooner rather than later—but watch your step!
During a warm spell back in late March, adult Mason Bees began emerging from nest sites to begin mating. During recent days, we photographed the fertile females as they continued the process that will produce the next generation of these fruit-friendly pollinators.
In early April of each year, we like to take a dreary-day stroll along the Susquehanna in Harrisburg to see if any waterfowl or seabirds have dropped in for a layover before continuing their journey from wintering waters along the Atlantic seaboard to breeding areas well to our north and northwest. As showers started to subside this Saturday morning past, here are some of the travelers we had the chance to see…
If you want a chance to see these seldom-observed visitors to the lower Susquehanna at Pennsylvania’s capital city, try a morning walk along mid-town’s Riverfront Park from Maclay Street to Forster Street. Also, try a stroll on City Island, particularly to the beach at the north end where you have a view of the mid-river areas upstream. To have better afternoon light, try the river’s west shore along Front Street in Wormleysburg from the Market Street Bridge upstream to Conodoguinet Creek. Once there, be certain to check the river from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s West Fairview Access Area at the mouth of the creek. And don’t be afraid to visit on a gloomy day; you never know what you might find!
SOURCES
Behrens, Ken, and Cameron Cox. 2013. Seawatching: Eastern Waterbirds in Flight. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. New York, NY.
Here are five common forest flowers that the average visitor to these environs may easily overlook during an early April visit.
Be certain to get out and enjoy this year’s blooming seasons of our hundreds of varieties of flowering plants. But, particularly when it comes to native species,…