(How to) Chirp like a cricket

I love recording & editing ambiences and if its a sunny day (in reality or onscreen) then theres nothing better than the chirp of crickets, in fact I prefer listening to crickets than to some of the more austere electronic music… I have a basic understanding of how such a small creature makes such a loud high frequency sound, but a quick search turned up more than I could ever want to know about the subject…. Depending on the particular insect it seems there are four methods but almost all are temperature dependent, which isn’t a surprise, certainly in NZ during summer you get used to cicadas starting to chirp when the sun comes out. Which is great if you want to record cicadas but is a royal pain in the butt for dialogue recording as each camera angle/take can end up with a different level of shrill cicadas.. One local production sound recordist is infamous for his unique technique of dealing with them (it involves one of those high pressure water pistols & a lot of frenzied action between takes!)
Turns out you can actually calculate (roughly) the current temperature by counting the number of chirps in 15 seconds & applying a formula, but it is dependent on the species eg Katydid: T = 60 + (N – 19 / 3) – handy huh?
Anyway these two guys can teach you how to chirp like an insect; according to the first guy it seems to involve simultaneous whistling & lip vibrating whereas the second guy describes it more as whistling on the inbreath & snoring… Frankly I’m impressed they can do it with a straight face, but maybe thats an essential part of the process – you must become the cricket, assume a cricket-like mind…. ah grasshopper, your first lesson awaits: