The flower suggests dandelion, but the absence of leaves confirms coltsfoot's identity. Its leaves grow later. Dandelions will follow soon enough. On chilly evenings, spring peepers pipe from puddles in the woods. And wood frogs quack like a flock of mallards from soggy ditches and roadside ruts.
Salamanders busy themselves beneath logs and rocks.
High in the trees great horned owls tend to snow-white owlets that hatched weeks ago. Along lakes and rivers, bald eagle eggs are beginning to hatch. And on the highest ledges of skyscrapers all across the country, successfully reintroduced peregrine falcons are incubating eggs. In a few weeks when these eggs hatch, carefully butchered pigeon fillets will sate the hungry broods and more than a few neotropical migrants will round out the peregrine menu. At dusk in forest openings and on grassy ridge tops, woodcock dance.