Early indicators of spring!

This morning, I walked outside and discovered a yellow crocus about to bloom in our front yard. While crocus aren't native, I love these little flowers because of their optimism for spring. They push out of the ground, even while it's cold, and then burst open on the first warm day. In our front yard, we've planted several different colors including yellows, purples, and whites. Each color blooms in succession with the yellow ones coming out first. Here is a picture of the first spring flower of our yard.

After spending the morning hanging out with some friends over breakfast, I got my chainsawing gear together and headed over to my mom's house in Gentry. Gentry in a small Arkansas town ever farther north and west than where we live in Fayetteville. I spent the rest of the day, cutting brush. At dark, I began to hear on the wind, a very familiar sound. The spring peepers are already calling!!!! As I finished up, I drove over to a place in town that is a remant wet prairie. Every year at this spot congregates spring peepers, American toads, southern leopard frogs, chorus frogs, and (at least in the past) crawfish frogs. Today only spring peepers and an occasional southern leopard frog were calling. For me, the sound of spring peepers signals the change of seasons, and I love to sit in the dark and listen to a chorus. I'm not sure if I stuck my head out of a burrow and saw my shadow whether I would think there'd be 6 more weeks of winter or that spring was just around the corner. But with crocus blooming and spring peepers calling, I'm optimistic, and I'll be keeping an eye out for spring. Below is a video I recorded with my camera. The picture isn't good because it was dark, but I was more interested in recording the sound of the spring peepers. You'll also need to ignore the sound of a car driving by.