Pseudacris crucifer...

(Listen...you can hear them too, turn your speakers on.)
Last night I heard them...wasn't sure so I had to step outside on the front porch for a better listen. After the door closed behind me it was silent for a minute or so and then there they were. Faint, not in the pond by my house, somewhere across the fields towards the wetland area but definitely there or should I say here. Yes, they are finally here.

Here in Ohio pseudacris crucifer, or Spring Peepers as we call them, hibernate under logs and loose bark of trees from around October to late February early March. Warm spring rains bring this nocturnal frog out again to search for their mate. Only the males have the ability to make the high pitched peeps that we hear thus earning them their name.

When you have several hundred in a pond it is quite a chorus (or cacophony depending how close your bedroom window is to the pond). But for me it signals spring. While it has been in the 60's and 70's here the last 3 days we are looking at 40's this week...but it's coming, just as the peepers did.

P.S. On Martha's Vineyard spring peepers are referred to as "pinkletinks", in New Brunswick, Canada they are called "tinkletoes", in parts of the southern United States they are sometimes called spring creepers.