Cicada in the Midlands?

[Jon1982]

Hello Folks,
A week last Friday at about dusk I was on the patio at the back of the house and could hear an insect like chirping noise. It was difficult to trace and I realised it was coming from further away from the garden. I managed to source the sound to a tree, and under the tree it was very loud, like nothing I have heard before.

My sister seems to think it is a cicada. Is this possible? One theory is that my sister returned from a holiday in Greece a couple of days before the (insect?) was first heard, is it possible she could have had a stowaway?

I have managed to film the sound, and have uploaded a clip to my website. It hasnt come out quite as well as I had hoped, and is much quieter than in the flesh (it can be plainly heard 100 yards away) but it should be enough for someone to identify.

Right click on the below, save target as)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jhicking/Cap0010.mpg

It carried on chirping away for a couple of hours, did similar saturday night, and was then quiet all week. It returned this weekend although it is now in a different tree! I am wondering if it holed itself up during the week and re-emerged due to the milder weekend.

I'd be really interested to know what people think this is!

[Dogghound]

They are very rare in the UK. Its probrably a species of Cricket which are common throughout the area.

[Jez]

I hope you got back okay. It seemed a bit blairwitch project to me

[paulchandler6]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

They are very rare in the UK. Its probrably a species of Cricket which are common throughout the area.

Yes thay are very rare in the UK. I beleive there is/was a small population in the New Forest and the odd few have turned up in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Paul

[Deer Stalker]

It sounds like one of the Bush-crickets, but can't really hear enough to tell which.

[aeshna5]

It could be a cricket rather than a bush-cricket. Though our native crickets are pretty rare, several species are readily available as live pet food + these do escape + even form temporary colonies.

[andymjukes]

hi all,
I've had a listen and it sounds like a house cricket to me. We get records of these in the summer months as the circkets escape from pet shops, garden centres or people who keep them as food for reptiles and preying mantids.
Cicada is a very loud and more of a high pitched drilling sound.

[nightshade]

Cicada is a very distinctive sound one of our crickets is much more likely

[hsl]

I've never heard a noise nothing like as long as that. Can you hear crickets from that distance?

[bugbotherer]

Has anyone considered the Mole Cricket ? I read somewhere that the midlands was one of the few places they were recorded (in some allotments I think).... That's a bit of vague news