Tree Tops

The twigs in the tree tops are beginning to droop, many are brown. The female Periodical Cicadas are beginning to deposit eggs. The mating is beginning to take on a fever pitch, and the sound of the males singing is almost overpowering. In a few weeks, many trees will have dead twigs drooping where the females have placed eggs. Males are starting to show up on the ground dead, their job of fertilizing a female's eggs done. The mating dance is starting to take on a extreme fervor now, with many individuals flying around trying to get mated, both male and female.
Their cousins, the Annual Cicadas will come out later, in July, during Dog Days. Here, they are called "Dry Flies", due to the dry, rasping sounds they make. Watch for them in a couple of months. You will be able to hear them, trust me. They have some of the loudest songs in the Animal Kingdom, some as loud as a jet plane taking off. They have the same sort of life cycle, just shorter, and some of them like pines and other evergreens; the Periodicals mostly like hardwoods, though I have seen a lot of them emerging under Spruce.
When the Periodical Cicadas are finally gone, and some people will be quite happy (not me!), it will be mid-summer; they will mostly be gone before the end of July. Then, of course, listen for the "Dry Flies".