Now that spring has sprung, it’s time to head outdoors and soak up its beauty.   See the first leaves open, the buttercups and dandelions bloom, and watch the dragonflies emerge from the wetlands.

Here are some things to look and listen for during the month:

• Hummingbirds arrive and songbirds begin to nest. Walk through Huber Woods Park and see if you can spot them carrying grass, twigs or feathers.
  
• Listen for the downy and hairy woodpeckers making nest cavities in trees in Hartshorne Woods Park.
  
• Migrating shorebirds arrive at Bayshore Waterfront Park.
  
• Piping plovers return to potential nesting beaches including Seven Presidents Oceanfront Park.  Be sure to watch them from a distance.
  
• Hibernating butterflies start to emerge.  Look for them at Deep Cut Gardens. 
  
• Dogwood, elm, adler, birch and maple trees start to bloom. Visit Holmdel Arboretum for a feast for the senses.
  
• Look for garter snakes sunning themselves on warm days.
  
• Ospreys begin to nest. In the past, pairs have nested at the Manasquan Reservoir.
  
• Wild ginger is flowering.
  
• Listen for spring peepers chorus in the evening.  The females are laying eggs – more than 1,200 eggs will be deposited on each submerged twig or pond weed. 

This month:

Fowler Toad

• Green frogs, fowler toads and American toads begin breeding season.
  
• Red fox and coyote pups are born.
  
• Alewife, blueback herring and American shad enter rivers and streams, in the annual spawning runs.  After laying eggs in freshwater, the adults return to the seas and the newly-hatched young stay in rivers until fall.

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