by Carl Strang
It has been a memorable few weeks. This year I took the bulk of my vacation time in the heart of the singing insect season, mid-August to mid-September, and spent most of it traveling around the 22-county area, from southwest Michigan to southeast Wisconsin, where I am seeking the 100 species of cicadas, crickets, katydids and singing grasshoppers that occur (at least potentially) there. This travel took me to many memorable places.
I didn’t spend a lot of time in the forests, however, much as I love them. Most singing insects live in more open habitats.

The dunes around the edge of Lake Michigan provided some of the most open habitats. Warren Dunes State Park, Michigan.
One of my favorite areas was Miller Woods at the western end of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

The Miller Woods Trail eventually skirts a large pond at the edge of the dunes, and reaches the beach.
Wetlands included Bluff Creek in the Kettle Moraine State Forest, Walworth County, Wisconsin.
Sure, I was paying attention to species other than singing insects. At the Houghton Lake Nature Conservancy property in Marshall County, Indiana, I encountered a couple interesting ones.
The most extensive prairie I encountered was in the Bong Recreation Area, Kenosha County, Wisconsin.
For now I will close with the sunset on my last evening at Bong.
The singing insects of course were the focus of all this travel. I’ll share images of some of them in future posts.