Spring Peepers and Arriving Birds

Spring peepers(Pseudacris crucifer) are noisy, almost 24 hours a day.  Most people are surprised to learn so much noise comes from such a small creature, which is about the size of the tip of my index finger. We have the Northern subspecies P. c. crucifer in the Mid-Atlantic.


You can hear their call by clicking one of these links: wav file or mp3 file

Eastern Meadowlarks (Sturnella magna) have arrived and have started singing.

American Robins (Turdus migratorius) seem to have descended en masse too.

Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) are inspecting and adopting housing for the Spring. Fortunately, we just installed six new boxes in early March.

Our Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is back.  I really don't know if we have the same Red-tails every year, but it's nice to think so.

Other birds spotted this week (hover over common names to see an image):

White-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis)

American Goldfinches (Carduelis tristis

Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata)

Red-headed Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus)

Hairy Woodpeckers (Picoides villosus)

White-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis)

Carolina Wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus)

Pileated Woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus)

Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa)

Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura)

Rock Doves, or pigeons (Columba livia)

There was no good river trash following last weekend's flood.  On the riverbanks and nearby islands, we've found everything from canoes and sailboats to balls and other toys after past flooding, and that somehow makes cleaning up the mobile home parts, refrigerators and shredded blue tarps a little more tolerable.