Spring Peeper
It’s official, Springtime is officially here! Despite what the calendar may say – it’s not for another two days – the spring peepers in the woods along the Potomac River say otherwise.
After my wife and I went grocery shopping at the commissary at Fort Belvoir last Friday after work, we drove past a cul-de-sac that looped into a small wood that bordered the river and we heard them – thousands of spring peepers – chorus frogs – chirping away.
This time of year in the mid-Atlantic states just after nightfall, the little (less than an inch) male Pseudacris crucifer hangs out in leafy bush or tree, near water and peeps his heart out trying to find a mate.
To me, their cheerful mating call means the end winter and its short, cold, gray days. Spring peepers mean being enveloped by the earth’s surge to life in the Blue Ridge, as I sit against a tree turkey hunting at dawn in a few short weeks. Or feeling the warmth of the sun and being amazed by the sudden greening of the shoreline, as I fish for delicious, hard-fighting crappie in the Potomac.
The spring peepers are making their beautiful music, telling us all within earshot that it’s time to chalk up the turkey calls, put some fresh line on our fishing reels, dust off our bicycles or clean the spider webs out of our kayaks and get outside!
Northern Virginia Outside 