OUTDOOR CORNER: SUBTLE VOICE OF SPRING BEGINS TO FIND EARS

As winter fades and the days get warmer, I find myself paying close attention to nature. While inspecting the swollen buds of a sliver maple the other morning, my ear caught the high-pitched, ascending "peep" of a single northern spring peeper. To me, this is a sure sign that spring has arrived.

Another sign of spring is the increased abundance and activity of songbirds. Some migratory species, like gray catbirds, are absent from Missouri during the winter, and then return in early spring. This slate gray bird with its black cap and long, ark tail can be seen near the dense cover of shrubs and small trees. Its lively song often includes a cat-like "meow."

Other species. such as American robins, are present in low numbers throughout the winter, but their populations grow during February and March as birds in southern states move northward. Their song is a tuneful series of whistled phrases that sounds like "cheer up, cheerily; cheer up, cheerily. . .." Eastern bluebirds have a similar strategy for coping with winter, moving only as far south as the weather demands.

Still other species are year-round residents, but they become more active and sing more frequently once spring is here. Northern cardinals and Carolina wrens both fall into this category. They are present all winter, but only in spring do woods and backyards resound with the slurred whistles of the cardinal and the melodic "tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle" of the wren.

While bird songs may be the most well-known sounds of spring, frogs, too, add their varied voices to the chorus. As they begin breeding in ponds, marshes and temporary puddles, the males call loudly to attract females. Once quiet wetlands seem to come alive with their echoing calls.

The northern spring peeper mentioned earlier is perhaps the most vocal frog in February. Their clear, peeping calls from the margins of woodland ponds and swamps are a powerful tonic for ears dulled by the silence of winter.

Another fog that breeds in early spring is the western chorus frog. In extreme southeast Missouri, this species is replaced by the upland chorus frog, a close relative. Both species produce a one to two second trill that sounds like someone pulling their fingernail over the teeth of a pocket comb.

While the birds and frogs fill the air with their music, the earliest wildflowers quietly push through the forest floor and begin to bloom. The diminutive, yet graceful harbinger of spring is our earliest common woodland wildflower. On stems as short as two inches, it puts forth tiny bouquets of small white flowers with reddish-brown anthers. These flowers emerge prior to the leaves. The contrasting colors of petals and anthers give rise to the harbinger's other common name, pepper and salt. Harbinger of spring is usually found in reach forests at the base of slopes and in valleys.

A few weeks later the delicate blooms of spring beauty can be found in open woods, wooded or open valleys, field and even lawns. This wildflower is about five inches tall when flowering, and its five white or pink petals are striped with bright pink veins. The flowers are about a half inch in diameter.

Hepatica, bloodroot, and Dutchman's breeches are three other wildflowers that bloom in early spring. All of these plants are usually found on rich, forested sites, such as along steep, north-facing slopes, and in ravines and valleys.

Hepatica is a low-growing plant, usually found on rich, north-facing slopes and along rock ledges. Like harbinger of spring, its flowers often emerge before the leaves. The flowers are usually lavender to bluish, although some are pure white. The leaves have three broad lobes that turn a deep reddish liver color in fall and winter, hence the plant's other name, liverleaf.

Bloodroot sends up a single white flower with a yellow center, on a stalk up to 10 inches tall. The flower is about one inch in diameter. Their thick, deeply lobed leaves are perhaps their most characteristic feature. Bloodroots are rapid bloomers; each flower usually opens for only a day.

Dutchman's breeches produces a series of 3/4-inch long, white or pale pink flowers, that dangle from a stalk and look like long underwear hanging upside-down on a clothesline. The blue-green leaves are highly dissected and fern-like.

Noting the first signs of spring is one of life's simple pleasures. You can do it in the woods and swamps or in your own backyard. The Missouri Department of Conservation at North County Park in Cape Girardeau has free information on Missouri's native plants and animals, including "Missouri's Toads and Frogs," "Common Spring Wildflowers," and "Showy Woodland Trees of Spring."

The Department also sells books that help increase your knowledge and deepen you appreciation of Missouri's outdoors, such as "The Amphibians and Reptiles of Missouri," and "Missouri Wildflowers," as well as the cassette tapes "Missouri Bird Calls," and "Talking Toads and Frogs."

~Doug Newman is a natural history regional biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation.