Spring is in the air! You know spring has sprung when wildflowers carpet the hills with color, windows are opened for fresh air, snow melts, streams swell with water and when T-shirts and flip flops become the norm.
Have you been looking for the signs of spring: blossoms blooming, buzzing bees, longer days, and the melody of birds? We often describe spring as a time of rebirth, renewal and awakening. Trees are blossoming and early flowers are pushing through the earth. Things are coming to life! But what does spring sound like?
Spring is a chorus of wildlife calls, including meadowlark, bison, prairie dogs, and more. Spring brings new sounds; like bird songs at dawn, frog croaks by ponds, crickets and dripping icicles.
Ponds are full of frogspawn and the nightly chorale of frogs! They hibernate during the winter, but when spring comes around, they’re awake and raring to go with their full throttle of their croaking variations.
There’s that high-pitched, chirping noise that can drive you crazy. Crickets late at night. Feeling the warm weather, crickets appear to begin singing and mating. It’s our little April Chirper, sounding off months before the other singing insects are heard.
The plip, plop, plink, plunk, drip, pitter-patter, splash! Listen to the sounds of spring. Melting ice can emit a surprising variety of sounds. From the steady drip of sun-warmed icicles to the groans and cracks of thawing lakes. The sound of melting ice layers shifting from the spring thaws. Water bodies awaking from their winter state with new sounds of life.
There’s the tinkling stream. The calming sound of water flowing from the soft melting snow. We hear the streams as they burble along in their creek bed, bubbling over rocks and branches.
Watersheds’ trickles change to surging channels from driving rain and snowmelt into creeks, streams, and rivers. The roar of creeks and rivers as they reawaken. Waterfalls thawing and thundering over cliffs or erupting from the side of a steep canyon wall. April showers softly caressing then building in intensity with low rumbles of thunder.
The wind rustling through the new emerging leaves. A gentle spring breeze lightly tickling the leaves and branches of trees to softly graze against the other. Or Spring winds with powerful force of whistling howls to blustering gales.
Bees buzzing. Taking a moment to listen to the bees’ hum from flower to flower, collecting their pollen and nectar can be one of life’s simple pleasures. Or the angry buzz when defending themselves or their hives.
Red winged blackbirds, Baltimore orioles and American robins herald the arrival of spring. The ‘dawn chorus’ of birds. The nightingale in the evening, and the voices of night birds. The melody of birds is one of the loveliest sounds in nature. Their songs can be loud and lively or cooing. We spring to Life when we hear the sweet sweet sound of our fellow meadowlark or Robin.
Bird sounds provide a natural soundtrack for our lives. Among other things, they give voice to the spring, sweeten the sunrise, and add mystery to the night. “Celebrated by poets and renowned as one of nature’s greatest singers, the Wood Thrush occupies a class of its own. This tireless singer is one of the first birds to be heard in the morning and one of the last to quit in the evening.”
The Yellow Warbler’s sweet, cheerful song lasting just a second. Tho it’s shared again and again. The song something of a spring and early-summer anthem. Song Sparrows offer listeners a repertoire of songs and put a “signature touch adding unique interludes of varying tempo between standard song phrases.”
Male Bobolinks belt out gurgling, metallic-sounding songs that last about 3.5 seconds each. Songs that woo females, delineate territory, and, for appreciative human listeners, enliven fallow fields, meadows, and prairies in spring.
The sweet whistles of the Western Meadowlark grace fields and farms with rich, flute-like songs span a wide range of notes. Golden-crowned Sparrows with clear whistles, sliding downward in a melancholy phrase to sing a sad song. Often adding a trill to the end.
The sound of sandhill cranes fill the air with a peculiar blend of high-pitched purrs, ratcheting honks, and low moans. House Finches share their exquisite songs, taking to high perches, to sing with gusto for extended periods. Their fast-paced song bounces up and down.
The Canyon Wren found mainly among cliffs and canyons offers a cascading song, formed of a distinctive series of liquid-sounding whistles bouncing and amplified, from rock face to rock face.
It might look demure, but the bush stone-curlew has a call that would make just about anyone’s blood run cold. “Nicknamed the ‘screaming woman bird’, their high-pitched, drawn-out shrieks can be heard across the night as they try to contact each other.”
The eerie howling of wolves can be both haunting and captivating. The call of the coyote echoing against the hillsides. Or the harsh, loud shrieks called “the vixen’s scream” of the red fox.
Whether it’s the wind through the trees, the chatter of animals, the movement of water, or the noise of nothingness that just seems to exist naturally; these sounds make up nature’s white noise.
Not only do we have the sweet warbles of the delightful song bird but the male grouse and prairie chickens start their spectacular courtship dancing display. The prairie chicken’s boom, the Ruffed Grouse drum. Listen to the chatter, stomping feet, and hiccups that fill the air with the dancing of Sharp-tailed Grouse. There’s something about the rhythmic drumroll of feathered feet, guttural ‘hiccupy’ call, and the flash of violet.
The sounds of Spring. Listen. Immerse yourself in the tranquil sounds of the great outdoors. Hear Spring this year.