Friday, March 12, 2010

Harbingers

I got my first definitive sign that spring is imminent this morning. As I opened my kitchen door, ready to head out in the early morning fog and mist to let the hens out of their coop, I heard them. Loud croaks, coming from the tiny throats of hundreds of newly emerged frogs. Our miniscule pond, frozen over all winter, finally thawed in this week's warm spell. Frogs are bursting out all over the place. Harbingers of spring. It's really going to happen, after all.

*Image from here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The sounds of spring are amazing.
Our ponds are bursting also.

psmflowerlady said...

Just an FYI - the National Wildlife Federation has a program for counting croaks. Frogs are a great indicator of ecosystem health and they use croak counts from volunteer across America to collect this data. I was thinking that the counting took place in April, but that might just be because I live in OH. It's pretty interesting and they give info on idenfication of species, etc. based on the croaks. Just an FYI. I love the sound too - it really is such a wonderful "teaser".

Amber Pixie Shehan said...

Isn't it wonderful?!

I left my jacket at home today and didn't realize it until I was halfway to work.

I have my window open and the birds are chirping and kids are screeching playing in a nearby schoolyard.

The breeze smells like heaven! I'm jealous of your frogs. I don't have a pond in my yard!

http://www.swamppixieherbal.blogspot.com

Artful Gathering said...

I thought the same thing this am when I stepped outside. I don't have frogs yet but the canadian geese are flying North and the birds were singing merrily outside. SPRING IS on IT's WAY! HURRAY! In Wisconsin it takes awhile to coax spring to come out and play but today I can see it's on the way! Now to get thru the mud in my yard....yucko!

k dilley said...

Aw, I love this picture! Hope you are doing well!