While I was clearing the brush and weeds from our back yard the other day, I found something I didn’t expect.

I was in the process of decapitating some sort of bush with branches about an inch in diameter with my trusty Corona pruner that has served me well since I bought it last weekend.  The bush was covered with dense leaves and honeysuckle vines, so I had to cut it apart one branch at a time after digging through all the foliage. 

As I lifted one branch and began to push it aside to make a cut, a spot of blue caught my eye.  Three robin’s eggs in a nest, buried deep inside the bush!  The birds that built that nest certainly knew what they were doing, as I doubt if any cat or other predator could make its way through all the leaves and vines to get to the nest.  I also liked the way these birds wove a piece of blue plastic tape into the little twigs when they were constructing the nest.

I went in the house and got my camera to photograph the nest.  I had to hold the top branch back with one hand while operating the camera with the other hand.   I haven’t checked on the nest in several days, but I’m guessing the eggs have hatched by this time.    

We live in a suburb about 10 miles from downtown Charleston.  We’ve lived in our present house for eleven years, and until last night, I’ve never heard spring peepers right in our own backyard.

Spring peepers are cute (well, I think so, anyway) little tree frogs that are found throughout West Virginia.  I was a zoology major during my first two years of college, and I took a herpetology class during my sophomore year.  More than 25 years later, I can still recall that the Latin name for spring peeper is Hyla crucifer because of the x-shaped marking on its back (crucifer = cross).  I loved that herpetology class.  If I had gone on to get my undergraduate degree in zoology instead of changing my major to criminal justice, I believe I would have ultimately become a herpetologist.  

Anyway, I digress.  Our back yard has a low-lying area that is prone to collecting runoff water.  We’ve had some rain here lately, so we currently have a substantial puddle of water in our back yard.  Some spring peepers have obviously moved in.  We could hear them rather faintly last night while we were eating dinner (in the front part of our house), but I could hear them loud and clear after I went to bed, since my bedroom faces our back yard. 

I stayed awake for awhile last night to enjoy their peeping, since it’s always a welcome sign that spring is on the way (that, and the fact that our grass is getting greener and longer by the day!).