We took a walk in the Little Red Schoolhouse Woods on Saturday, enjoying the sunny day and the anticipation of spring that is in the air. As we walked, we noticed the swollen buds on the trees, the soft, furry tips of the pussywillow bushes. The prairie grasses were bent, bowing to the strong winds, and the water around the slough was glistening in the sun. While we couldn’t see them, we could hear the call of the Sandhill cranes, miles up, heading north for another season.
It was the first faint notes of a chorus that kept pulling us along the path, however. Tom remembered a spot from last year; a bench and a pond and a party of sorts. As we got closer, the sound intensified until we heard, for the first time this year, the spring peepers! 
Many of you asked what peepers were and I realized that they are a mystery to you. In fact, they were a bit of a mystery to me until just a few years ago when I came upon them performing nature’s symphony at the Morton Arboretum
. Peepers make one think of eyes and optics and vision, or something more sundry like a shady character who looks into women’s windows at night.
Spring peepers, Psuedacris crucifer to be more precise, are tiny frogs that inhabit swampy woodlands. In early spring, when the ice has melted and the water and air begins to warm, the peepers debut. At only about 1.5 inches (38mm), they are difficult to see, but their singing can be heard from some distance and is often quite boisterous.
We sat on a bench for a spell, taking in the warmth and the wonder of nature, enjoying the spell of the musical moment.
Won’t you sit for a moment and listen as well?
Click here. Then click the listen button.
What a fabulous noise, and a truly lovely post. I know spring isn’t far away when such delightful things are happening in my favourite bit of the US. J.
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Thank you, Janice. It is a wonderful part of the US – I quite agree. Hope you had a good weekend.
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What a cool site, now everyone can hear why we stop our car on the way home from your house, roll down the windows, and listen to the peeps. What a wonderful sound of Spring. Start Peeping Peepers…
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It’s fun, isn’t it Sharon? You are welcome to come on over any time, roll down your window, and listen to the real thing. More should be singing soon with such a warm week predicted.
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First of all…what a site! I can’t wait to spend more time on that with the girls. Penny, I was at my mom’s yesterday and told her about the peepers! We were talking about little signs of spring and I shared your story and we both just wished we knew what that was like to experience. I can’t wait to share this with her–Sophia and Karina will love it, too! Oh my goodness but this was fun! Thank you! Debra
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Isn’t it fun, Debra? I’m sure the girls will enjoy hearing it and “exploring” a bit. I’m so pleased that you will be able to share it with you mom, as well. Another benefit of living so close to her. You are very welcome.
If this is exciting for all, you might want to go to a site where an eagle’s nest is being monitored with a camera. It is in Decorah, Iowa and is live a good part of the time. You can see the eggs, hatching, the eaglets – all live over a period of time. I’m not sure if the eggs have hatched yet this year, I think they have. It is fun and very interesting to watch.
http://www.decoraheaglecamalerts.com/
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Oh, I am so glad that you and Tom got to hear the peepers. I asked mine to send word to their northern cousins to hurry up. It was so pleasant last night, I stood on the deck for a few minutes. I wanted to see Jupiter, Venus and our Moon show off as they came together in the night sky. It was so peaceful to look at that starry night and listen to our little frog friends.
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Thank you, Janet, for getting the word up here so nicely to the northern cousin peepers. We spent a bit of time listening to them yesterday. Tom is always so good at remembering special spots. It was a bit of a surprise as the ones on the cutoff aren’t yet singing. Hasn’t the sky been magnificent at night? I can sit here and imagine the peacefulness of it all in your quiet prairie, standing on your deck, without all the lights and noise of city so close as we have it here. Sigh.
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What a delight to see the first signs of spring through your eyes – and to hear the peepers! What dear little creatures they are, and how penetrating and bright is their sound. No wonder you like to listen for them. How marvellous to have this little orchestra playing the first spring song of the season.
Here it is continuing to rain, and we are entering autumn without having had a summer – all very strange, but the peepers reassure me that nature is on cue somewhere in the world.
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They make such big noises for such little things, don’t they? I love to listen to them, but, the first sounds are always the best. Your summer and early Autumn has been as strange as our winter was, Juliet. It is reassuring to know that some of nature is on cue. Thank you for that reminder – a very good one, indeed.
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What a delightful illustration! Am slightly jealous of your walk..it would be a bit too soggy to take one of my own today as rain moved in last night. Tomorrow the radio said it would be 78 degrees. We have been enjoying the sight of wild turkeys against the green grass. Not too close to the house but fun to spot. The new fence between our property and the next is finished and they put young Holstein bulls in the pasture other day. They can be fun to watch, especially when first turned out of a smaller pen. They run and frolic and enjoy the freedom.
Forgot to listen for the peepers again, but they are probably peeping. There is a creek/wooded area about 1/4 mile from us.
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Isn’t it wonderful, Joyce. It is a painting for an unpublished Beatrix Potter book of stories. Oh, my. 78. That’s warm already, even as far south as you are. It sounds like lots of springtime activity with the turkeys and the Hollsteins. Such a pastoral scene you paint for me with your words.
If they are peeping here, they must be peeping in Kansas. I hope you can hear your own chorus soon. Enjoy the warmth.
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What a chirpy chap, Penny! I love that sound. So exuberant! What a fanfare for Spring!
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Indeed, it is fanfare, Kate.
FYI – as we got off the highway behind our house the other night, Tom caught something about to dart out. We are always watching for deer, but, this animal was smaller, with a pointy snout and ears. The first time we’ve seen fox at night and at this dangerous spot.
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How marvellous – both in sound and description, I love “peepers” 🙂 As Spring is beginning in your part of town we are desperately seeking the first change of colour to signal Autumn and relief from a very hot summer!
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Thank you. Aren’t they fun to listen to? I love to feel the changes of the seasons happening at the same time in different parts of the world. Your Autumn to our spring. Enjoy the coming respite from the heat.
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Dear Penny,
What a delight to listen to the tree frogs and the “peepers”–a word I didn’t know. Thank you for the lovely walk in the woods.
I wanted to tell you that the Black quote is from his group of poems called “Auguries of Innocence.” And the first line is “To see a world . . . ” instead of “To see the world . . .” Quite a difference. I double-checked it today when I read your response to my comment and saw that you were going to copy it.
Peace.
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You are so very welcome, Dee. Now you know what a peeper is.
That was so very nice of you to double-check the quote. I will correct it accordingly and know I will refer to it at some point in time. Thank you, Dee.
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Oh, yeay! And thanks for the audio…I’ll have to go past the area I heard the peepers last year. Even after the mild winter (optimistically assuming it’s over), spring is anxiously bursting forward- as are all the people who enjoy it.
The Chicago Botanic was packed yesterday!!
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You are welcome, Heather. I hope the peepers have come out to play where you heard them last year. I’m just about to head down the road to see if they are singing yet here.
I imagine the Chicago Botanical Gardens were busy yesterday. What a good outing for the boys. It was so nice a day and we are all so anxious for spring, in spite of the mild winter. Peep, peep!
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Oh, I loved this.
Edward, however, did not!
He jumped up from his nap and stuck his nose uncomfortably close to the laptop screen, utterly certain there were baby frogs in there.
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Poor Edward, to be disturbed so from his nap. Every time I play this, our cockatiel starts chirping in his cage. I’m so pleased that you enjoyed it, Pamela.
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Your entire post is a delight, Penny, from the gorgeous Beatrix Potter illustration to the song of the peepers. I’ve had to wait til now to listen, as our broadband connection has been so flaky all day. Sigh… If you’d played that to me without telling me it’s a frog, I would have sworn I was listening to chirping birds. Not at all like our croaking frogs. 🙂
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Thank you so much, Perpetua. The first time I heard peepers, at the Morton Arboretum, I couldn’t figure out what they were. A little education from the volunteers there enlightened me and I’ve grown to anticipate their emergence each spring. They do sound at first like birds chirping. In fact, our cockatiel starts chirping away when I play this. We do have tree toads and bullfrogs that put up a different kind of racket as the season wears on, croaking deep into the night.
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We were on a cruise years ago and having dinner in a Caribbean bar when we heard this high constant beep. I asked the waiter what it was and he said ‘sma’ frogs’. Honestly we had heard frogs before — lots of times — but there were so many of them and it was such a high beep…anyway now when we hear peepers chorus we say ‘small frogs’.
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I love it, Sallie. What a lovely setting to hear “small frogs” from. What a chorus from such small things.
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Great minds think alike–I wrote about spring peepers today, too! We don’t have any here yet–but your audio clip made my day. They are just the best. I have a concert every night just out my bedroom window once they arrive in the little pond. Can’t wait! ;o)
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I’ll have to hop on over and read your post, Mike. That slow anticipation of the peepers as the weather warms is so delicious, isn’t it? How wonderful those concerts soon will be.
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A lovely post Penny, I felt like I was there sitting with you listening to the peepers! Like I said in an earlier post, I heard them myself a few days ago – “quite boisterous” is a good description!
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Thank you, Janet.
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[…] I’d never heard of peepers before, but Penny was clever and kind enough to include an audio link so we could hear nature’s sweet spring symphony. Do […]
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