Field Notes #2: The First Week of April According to the Living World

Right now, in ponds across the eastern United States, a frog the size of a paperclip is screaming its heart out. The spring peeper weighs less than a nickel. Males call up to 13,500 times per night. A chorus of them sounds like sleigh bells. Their genus name, Pseudacris, means “false locust” because nobody could believe a sound that loud came from a frog.

This frog survived the winter by freezing solid. Its liver floods its blood with glucose, a kind of natural antifreeze, and its heart just stops. Then the first warm rain comes. It thaws. It starts singing.

Spring doesn’t arrive with a date on a calendar. It arrives with a sound.

Five things the planet is doing this week

Tokyo is in full bloom

Japan

Tokyo’s cherry blossoms were declared in full bloom on March 28. Japan tracks this the way other countries track stock markets. The Japan Meteorological Corporation forecasts flowering dates for roughly 1,000 locations across the country. Kyoto should reach full bloom around April 1. Sapporo won’t see flowers until late April. The whole country watches a wave of pink move north for two months. They call it sakura zensen. The cherry blossom front.

A bird called “timberdoodle” is doing its sky dance

Eastern United States

The American woodcock is performing its courtship display right now across the eastern U.S. It also goes by timberdoodle, bogsucker, and Labrador twister. At twilight, the male stands in an open field and makes a nasal peent call. Then he launches into the air, spiraling up to 200 or 300 feet while specialized wing feathers make a twittering whistle. At the top, he hovers. Then he tumbles back down to the exact spot he launched from. He does this over and over, every evening, for weeks. On full moon nights, he goes all night. Right now across New England, bird clubs are leading “woodcock walks.” Groups of people standing in fields at dusk, just waiting.

Mushrooms are appearing overnight

Oklahoma, Oregon, Southern Illinois

The first morel mushrooms of 2026 were found on March 1 in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma. Since then, sightings have been creeping north. Morels fruit when soil temperatures reach about 50 to 55 degrees. That warmth is moving up through the continent right now like a slow wave. They can appear overnight. Bare forest floor one day. Honeycomb-capped mushrooms the next morning.

Nobody fully understands why morels fruit where they do. They seem tied to the roots of certain trees, especially elm, ash, apple, and sycamore, but the relationship is still a mystery. Some of the biggest flushes happen the first spring after a wildfire. The forest burns. The fungus underground loses its food supply. And its response is to fruit. To throw everything it has into making the next generation, right there in the ash.

Barn swallows are leaving Africa

South Africa to Southern Europe

Right now, millions of barn swallows are starting one of the longest migrations of any small bird on Earth. They spent the southern hemisphere summer in South Africa. As autumn arrives there, they head north, back across the Sahara and the Mediterranean to breed in Europe. Some will cover more than 11,000 kilometres. They weigh less than an ounce.

The first arrivals are already reaching southern Europe. Southern Italy, the Mediterranean coast. By April and May they’ll spread into the UK, Scandinavia, and Russia. One roost in Nigeria was estimated at 1.5 million birds. A single rest stop on a journey that spans two continents.

If you’re in southern Europe right now, look up. They’re arriving.

Australia’s only deciduous tree is about to turn

Tasmania

Almost every tree in Australia is evergreen. There is exactly one native species that drops its leaves in winter. It’s called the deciduous beech, Nothofagus gunnii. Tasmanians just call it fagus.

It only grows on mountains above 800 metres in the Tasmanian highlands. Every autumn, its crinkle-cut leaves go from green to gold to rust red. Tasmanians make a pilgrimage to see it. They call it the turning of the fagus. The colour peaks around Anzac Day, April 25.

Fossils of nearly identical plants have been found in Antarctica. You’re looking at something that was here when dinosaurs were. Dropping its leaves on a mountain in Tasmania. Right now.

Outside your door

If you’re anywhere in the northeastern U.S., step outside after dark tonight. Find a pond, a wetland, even a flooded ditch. Stand still. Listen.

That high-pitched chorus? Spring peepers. They were frozen solid all winter. Now they’re alive and calling. You can hear them from a mile away.

That’s spring arriving. In your ears.

An Invitation

What was the first sign of the new season you noticed? Something you noticed with your own body.

Want to know what’s alive outside your door every day? That’s what Rewyld does. → rewyld.earth

This article also appeared in Rewyld's Field Notes Substack