Look for slimy egg masses in puddles and ponds along the trails. These belong to spotted salamanders, wood frogs and toads. Kids love these, but please don't touch. The eggs are usually white, sometimes clear, and the egg mass is a few inches in diameter and attached to a stick under the water. This is the best time to hear the birds, especially early in the morning.
Peeps are the spring peepers, quacks are wood frogs, and long trills are toads.
These are easily identified about when the forsythia bloom. The green skunk cabbage is emerging from the swamp. I have found pink ladyslipper, wild geraniums, azalea, highbush blueberry, dwarf ginseng and mountain laurel blooming in previous years. These are the little ticks that are hard to see and the ticks most people get Lyme Disease from. Larger ticks are usually dogticks, especially when it's hot and you're in grass.