Spring is official: the spring peepers are singing
No need to wait until the vernal equinox on Sunday. For me, spring begins when the spring peepers begin their lusty chorus in the wetlands along Western Run in Cockeysville. And they've been singing up a storm since last week's rainstorm.
The peepers are known to biologists as 
Pseudocris crucifer, and they're common in wetlands throughout the eastern U.S. The "crucifer" part of their name refers to the darkly pigmented "X" on their backs. Not that I've ever been able to see one. They're a purely auditory experience for me. Click here to listen.
The little frogs lives in the litter on the forest floor, and it's the males you hear singing in the early spring as they work to attract a mate.
They like places in or near wetlands, and our stretch of Western Run certainly qualifies. Last Thursday's storm flooded a wide expanse of the floodplain, and apparently it was just what the froggies needed.
Welcome back!
(PHOTO: U.S. Geological Survey)
Comments
It was surreal to hear the Peepers singing during the snow last Sunday evening.
FR: Snow?! Where were you on Sunday?
Posted by: Ket Troxell | March 17, 2011 1:56 PM
Thanks Frank. That's music to my ears.
Posted by: Ralph | March 17, 2011 5:44 PM
I noticed them on my way home from church last night too. :-)
Posted by: Corine | March 17, 2011 10:35 PM
They began to sing around our Pasadena neighborhood on March 6.
Posted by: Dave | March 18, 2011 8:44 AM
Been hearing them for a week and a half in the woods behind my house in the Ellicott City/Elkridge area. I look forward to hearing them every year! In addition to the chorus of peepers, I've been hearing a few louder peeps as well. Any idea what that would be? I thought I was hearing them last fall as well.
Posted by: kam | March 18, 2011 10:28 AM
I meant Sunday March 6th. Left 7 fresh inches in Garrett County and returned home to N. Potomac to both Peepers and Wet globs of snowfall
Posted by: Ket Troxell | March 18, 2011 12:56 PM