Apparently the Animals Know....

Whenever there's been a brief warm spell during the past two months, I'd hear a chorus frog or two from the warmed crevices in my firewood pile or from the rock wall across the street from my house. But last night in the vicinity of a small pond on Buck's Lake Road, for the first time this season, I heard hundreds if not thousands creating a steady chorus.  It was very loud as I could hear it from 100 yards away.  They were the Pacific Chorus Frog, Pseudacris regilla.  Then, this morning, before sunrise, I was awakened by a great chorus of birds in my back yard.  Off my East-facing deck there is a stand of mixed species of trees: Ponderosa Pine, Douglas-fir, White Fir, California Black Oak, Big-leaf Maple, and numerous shrubs like Cascara Buckthorn and Deer Brush.  When spring is well underway I hear this bird chorus every morning. but today was the first time this season.  Very exciting.  Apparently the animals know something the weatherman doesn't.