We naturalists tend to associate certain natural sounds with specific times of the year. For example, while the call of a white-breasted nuthatch is heard throughout the year, I associate that nasal yank with mid autumn, a time when fall colors paint the forest and when the cool, dry air is tinted with the scents of black walnuts and wood smoke.
There are several sounds that I have come to associate with the a Midwestern May. One is the sharp "peent" of a common nighthawk in the evening sky, a welcome sign that he has safely returned from his winter home in South America. Another is the loud "wrheep" of the great crested flycatcher, often delivered repeatedly from the top of a large shade tree. A third is the "ker-plunk" of the male cowbird, a warning that he and his mate will soon parasitize the nest of a hapless songbird. Finally, while the calls of peepers and chorus frogs peak in March and both the duck-like chortle of leopard frogs and the trill of American toads dominate April wetlands, the deep grumble of the bullfrog and the broken-banjo-string tune of the green frog serenade visitors to the marsh in May.
Though a Midwestern May is traditionally associated with colorful flowers, verdant foliage and severe thunderstorms (it is the peak month for tornadoes in the American Midwest), I often think of the above sounds when the month is mentioned. Of course, in some years (as will occur in the Northeast this May), a brood of periodic cicadas commandeers the month , their shrill, deafening calls ringing through our parks and neighborhoods and their carcasses collecting on our roads, decks, cars and lawns; in those years, other sounds of the season are lost in the din of their frenzied orgy.
