Cicadas of Provence

Lyristes plebejus, Cicada orni, Cicadatra atra, Tibicina haematodes. Provence, Var, Luberon, France.

Best time: 1 Jul – 20 Aug (July to August). Where: Luberon (Bonnieux / Forêt des Cèdres), Massif de la Sainte-Baume, Massif des Maures (Collobrières) (France). Time of day: Song starts once the sun warms the trees (about 09:30), builds to a wall from 11:00 to 17:00, and drops with the temperature.

• You can go on your own
• Free
• No binoculars needed
• Sound 5/5

Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.

When is the best time?

Peak: 1 Jul – 20 Aug. July to mid August; song starts above about 22°C

Active from 15 Jun to 10 Sep (June to September) in a typical year.

Time of day

Song starts once the sun warms the trees (about 09:30), builds to a wall from 11:00 to 17:00, and drops with the temperature; Lyristes sings on into dusk.

• Peak chorus: 11:00 → 17:00

What will you hear?

The Provence cliché done properly: Lyristes' continuous saw at 100+ dB from the pines, Cicada orni's pulsing ticks from the oaks, and a shift of species with the hour and the tree.

Binoculars?

No binoculars needed. Wall of sound from every tree; nothing to look through.

Where to go

• Luberon (Bonnieux / Forêt des Cèdres) — Oak and cedar; villages nearby, but the hillsides are quiet by day. Map
• Massif de la Sainte-Baume — Old-growth forest on the north face; pines and garrigue on the south. Map
• Massif des Maures (Collobrières) — Cork oak and chestnut; forest tracks closed to cars in high fire-risk periods. Map

How to go on your own, and what it costs

Forest tracks are free: the Forêt des Cèdres road above Bonnieux, the Sainte-Baume forest car parks, the Maures tracks from Collobrières. Check the prefecture's daily fire-risk map in summer — massifs close on red days.

Cost: Free.

Field-recording notes

Pad the input; self-noise is irrelevant. Distance and a spaced pair give the spatial texture of a hillside; a single tree close-miked gives one species. In summer, Var and Bouches-du-Rhône close forest massifs on red fire-risk days — check the prefecture's daily map before driving in.

Sources

• INPN – Lyristes plebejus

Similar spectacles

• Cicada summer of the Adriatic coastCroatia · Insects · peak 1 Jul–15 AugContinuous Cicada orni ticking at 5–8 kHz merging into a shimmer, Lyristes plebejus's louder pulsing song from pines, cricket chorus at night, scops owl, sea.
• Cicada summer chorusItaly · Insects · peak 1 Jul–25 AugWall-of-sound cicada chorus in pinewoods and olive groves, with pulsing, overlapping rhythms of different species.
• Cicadas of the Spanish pinewoodsSpain · Insects · peak 1 Jul–20 AugContinuous cicada chorus from Aleppo and stone pines — Cicada orni's ticking pulses over Lyristes' saw — with the sea and, at dusk, bush-crickets taking over.
• Cicadas of Ticino and the Valais rock steppesSwitzerland · Insects · peak 5 Jul–20 AugCicada orni ticking merging into a wall in the chestnut and oak woods, Lyristes pulsing from pines, grasshoppers on the steppe; in the Valais, bee-eaters and a föhn wind.
• Karst nights: scops owl, nightjar and cicadasSlovenia · Nocturnal · peak 20 May–10 JulScops owl's monotone 'tyuh' every 2–3 s from village edges, nightjar churring on the dry meadows, sub-Mediterranean bush-cricket wall of sound, cicadas at 90+ dB at midday in July, eagle owl from the Vipava cliffs in late winter.
• Late-summer bush-cricket & grasshopper chorusUnited Kingdom · Insects · peak 1 Aug–31 AugLoud sewing-machine buzz of great green bush-crickets from coastal scrub; ticking of dark bush-crickets; the electric drone of Roesel's in rough grassland.

More: all spectacles in France · cicadas · cicadas, crickets and fireflies · France in July · France in August