Wildlife Through The Year: March

• Carolina wrens begin nesting - hang a gourd or open basket under your eaves.
• Swallow-tailed kites return to Florida from South American wintering areas.
• Frogs and toads move to ponds, streams and ditches to breed following rains.
• Lake Kissimmee shellcrackers bed on the full moon.
• First mangrove cuckoos return to the Keys.
• Listen for newly returned Chuck-will's-widows calling after sunset.
• Bromeliads start to flower in south Florida swamps.
• Great blue herons may be seen on their nests.
• Largemouth bass start to bed in north Florida; redear sunfish begin bedding in central Florida.
• Last chance until next winter to see manatees congregating at warm water sites.
• Great-crested flycatchers return late March to early April.
• Brown thrashers begin singing.
• Migrating songbirds, in full breeding plumage, arrive in waves each week.
• Wood storks in central Florida begin courtship and nesting.
• Sooty terns hatching in Dry Tortugas.
• Peak of snowy plovers nesting.
• Scrub-jays begin to mate and build nests in scrub oaks.
• Wild turkey and quail begin breeding in central and north Florida.
• Hummingbirds return.
• Purple martins begin nesting.
• Litters of raccoons, bobcat, and armadillos are being born.
• Black bears begin moving after winter's inactivity.
• Endangered gray bats return to Florida caves to raise young.
• Horseshoe crabs lay eggs on coastal beaches on a full moon at high tide.
• Ghost crabs come out of hibernation.
• Cow-nosed rays move north along the Atlantic coast.
• Gulf of Mexico sturgeon move into the Suwannee River to spawn.
• White bass run up the Ochlockonee River above Lake Talquin.
• Snakes and other reptiles are more active and likely to be seen in yards and gardens.
• Pine Barrens tree frogs start calling.
• Tree frogs lay eggs now through August. Tadpoles hatch out in about 5 days.
• Chickasaw plum and crabapples bloom in north Florida.