THE SOUND OF SPRING RE-BORN...

Yes! It's truly spring!

Mick and I were greeted in the pre-dawn darkness by a special chorus---spring peepers! As kids, we called them tree toads; or tree frogs! You will hear their mating calls only in the early spring, when ice has melted from the watery areas. To me they sound a bit like distant sleigh bells.

They inhabit wetlands like our valley, along a marshy creek. You won't see these little creatures; they live and hunt their food in high tree tops.

And as much as any other of the classic signs---the red-wing blackbirds, crows, robins, blue birds, daffodils, forsythia and all the others---they ARE the early springtime in my wetland neighborhood!

Welcome, tree frogs; welcome spring!

(Fifty-five degrees at 6 a.m).