Crow’s Nest: Sounds of Spring

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager

You still have to search a bit to see signs of spring… red maples are starting to bloom and skunk cabbage flowers are thrusting up in our wetlands. But the sounds are also starting.

I heard wood frogs making their quacking, squabbling calls in a wetland—not here at the preserve but at an easement I was monitoring—just a bit south of here. So any day now for us. At Crow’s Nest you can hear them most easily from the far end of the Creek Trail where there is a thicket of wet woods with vernal pools.

And at dusk last night I heard the buzzy Peent of woodcock. It sounded like it was coming from the field across French Creek from our house and the visitor center barn. You can hear a sample of woodcock calls at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.