What to look for in nature in Arkansas this April

More of them each week, and the voices change as the nights warm. The earliest callers of late winter are giving way as April brings the trills of toads, the quacking of green treefrogs and the pulsing trill of gray treefrogs. Arkansas has 23 frog and toad species, according to coverage of a statewide frog-call seminar series, so an evening beside any pond or ditch can carry a mixed choir.

Timing details below come mostly from the Missouri Department of Conservation, whose field guide is the most specific published source for the region. Arkansas is south of Missouri, so expect each species to start the same week or a little sooner, and expect cold snaps to quiet everything for a few nights.

Frogging does not open in April. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission lists bullfrog season as noon June 1 through midnight December 31, with a fishing license required, so the big frogs calling now are left alone. Spring is a time to listen. FrogWatch USA is a free program in which families learn about local wetlands and report frog and toad calls, and the Little Rock Zoo has offered registration-only workshops.

At river bottoms and wooded hills, from the second week of April and building toward early May. Arkansas’s tourism agency says the first returning residents and migrants start arriving around mid-March and peak the first week of May, with more than 35 species of warblers, vireos, orioles, thrushes and buntings passing through. April is the ramp. Each warm night with a south wind can drop a new wave of birds into the trees by morning.

Songbirds migrate mostly after dark and settle to feed at sunrise, so the first two hours after dawn are best. Cornell’s BirdCast offers live migration maps, forecast maps and a county dashboard built from weather radar, so you can see when a big movement is underway.

Log each first date on a birds I have seen page, with the weather. Compare your dates with the BirdCast maps.

Season dates are set, and they overlap the whole month. By the Commission’s 2027 schedule, young hunters ages 6 to 15 get the weekend of April 10 and 11 in zones 1, 1A, 2 and 2A with one legal turkey allowed. Regular seasons then open zone by zone: zone 3 runs April 5 to 25, zones 2 and 2A open April 12 (zone 2 closes May 2, zone 2A April 20), and zones 1 and 1A open April 19 (zone 1 closes May 9, zone 1A April 27). The statewide limit is two turkeys, no more than one taken during the first seven days in a zone and no more than one a day. Birds may not be taken from 30 minutes after sunset until 30 minutes before sunrise. In zones 1A and 2A the limit is one bird, and the Commission says a hunter who takes it must travel elsewhere for a second.

For everyone else the season means gobbling at dawn, and it means hens are about to start nesting. Missouri’s guide says toms gobble in spring to announce themselves and attract mates, and perform strutting displays with fanned tails and puffed feathers. Hens make a shallow ground nest, lay 10 to 14 eggs over several days and incubate them for about a month. Poults can leave the nest within a day of hatching.

If you are not hunting, walk quietly at dawn along forest edges and clearings on public land and expect to meet hunters. Wear bright clothing. Check the Commission’s turkey page for any change to zone boundaries or permits before you go.

The woods fill up. The National Park Service’s wildflower list for Buffalo National River puts a long run of flowers into April, and blue phlox is described as one of the first each spring. The park lists hepatica and bloodroot among the earliest bloomers, with May apple and shooting star coming later in spring. Local outfitters add that prime wildflower season on the Buffalo falls in late April, when favorites such as Indian paintbrush, fire pink and wild iris tend to cluster near waterfalls and other moist places. Waterfalls depend on rain, and the April normals above average roughly five inches in the hills, which keeps many flowing.

On the river itself, the Park Service says use is heaviest from April through August, with spring crowds concentrated on the upper river, and it recommends weekdays or a lower section for quiet. Water levels follow rainfall, and the river can run very low or even flow underground in places. After a storm the same stretch can turn fast and cold within hours, so check gauges and local advice before launching a canoe.

Usually from early to mid-April, as water passes the upper 50s and reaches the 60s. A weekly Arkansas Game and Fish Commission fishing report from April 8, 2021 captured the pattern. At Lake Maumelle, with water at 58 to 61 degrees, males sat on beds in 2 to 4 feet while females waited in 8 to 10 feet. At DeGray Lake the water was in the mid-60s, and an angler said temperatures staying above 60 would turn the fish on. At Lake Dardanelle some crappie were as shallow as a foot, and at Lake Ouachita they were caught anywhere from 3 to 12 feet. Dates shift with each spring, so treat this as a pattern, not a calendar.

Anyone fishing needs a valid Arkansas license, and length and creel limits are set by lake, so read the Commission’s current regulations first. Cold water and spring wind remain real hazards for small boats.

Warm days pull cold-blooded animals out of hiding. Three-toed box turtles, the most common land turtle in Arkansas, wander widely in spring while looking for food and mates. The Commission says the other box turtle in the state, the ornate box turtle, is protected and illegal to possess or collect. In the southern third of the state, American alligators begin basking again on warm afternoons. University extension specialists note that most sightings are confined to that southern third, and that alligators range north to the Arkansas River and along the Mississippi River into the northeast.

Warm and wet, with tornado season ramping up. April highs in the 1991–2020 normals run from about 70 °F in the northwest hills to 76 °F at El Dorado, with 4.4 to 5.6 inches of rain, as the table shows. A Little Rock television report on National Weather Service data back to 1950 says the peak of tornado season begins in late April and runs through early May. The same report notes that the state’s two largest outbreaks came in January 1999 and June 1960, so danger is never confined to one season.

April has made history in Arkansas. On April 25, 2011, the National Weather Service in Little Rock rated the Vilonia tornado EF2, with four deaths at a mobile home park southwest of town, a track just over 51 miles and a width of 2,900 yards, the widest on record in the state since 1950. On April 27, 2014, an EF4 tornado tracked 41 miles through Mayflower and Vilonia into White County and killed 16 people, the deadliest single tornado in the state since Jonesboro in 1968. In early April 2025, the Weather Service’s summary says storms and flooding killed three people in Arkansas and injured 14, mostly from flooding, with rainfall totals as high as 14.14 inches across April 2 to 5 that it compared to events that happen once in a generation to once in a lifetime.

The Climate Prediction Center posts a fresh round of seasonal outlooks every month on its 90-day outlook page.

Open the forecast and radar before any outing, set your phone to receive warnings overnight, and choose a shelter now. Never drive through flooded roads; low-water crossings on the Ozark and Ouachita streams can fill quickly. Late freezes can still bite in the hills early in the month, and the Arkansas frost dates page gives numbers for your town.

By April it is finished across most of the state, and only the hills are still in play. The federal 1991–2020 normals put the median last freeze at March 16 in Little Rock and April 8 at Fayetteville. The last column is the cautious one: nine springs in ten are freeze-free at Fayetteville by April 26, and at Harrison by April 8.

For gardeners, that means tomatoes and tender bedding plants belong in the ground after the date in the last column, or under cover on a cold night before it. Low spots and hollows run colder than airport thermometers.

Many more towns are listed on the Arkansas frost dates page, drawn from the same federal normals.

Between 56 and 63 minutes over the month, depending on the city, or about 2 minutes a day. The gain is a little larger in the north than the south. Daylight time is in force all month, so every sunrise and sunset you read is on the clock as the state keeps it.

For exact sunrise and sunset in your town, use the daylight tables. With the late sunsets, evening is the time for a family walk to listen for frogs.

A dark week early, a poor Lyrids display, the Pink Moon and a very low Mercury. All clock times below are Central Daylight Time.

The Eta Aquariid meteor shower begins about April 19 and peaks around May 5 and 6, an excellent year with a nearly new Moon, so keep that in mind for the next page. Today’s sky shows where the clouds are, and the moon phase calendar has moonrise times for your town.

1. Tuesday, April 6: a dark-sky night. The new moon is at 6:51 p.m. Bring a red flashlight and look for the Pleiades on the 10th.
2. All month: an evening frog walk. Carry a dim red light to a pond or ditch, stand back and list each species you hear. FrogWatch USA trains volunteers to report calls, and the Little Rock Zoo has offered free workshops in spring.
3. Early to mid-April: a Petit Jean or Devil’s Den wildflower walk. Both parks offer guided hikes in April in most years. Their 2027 programs had not been announced yet, so call the park or check the Arkansas State Parks calendar.
4. Tuesday, April 20: the Pink Moon rises. Watch from a hilltop or lakeshore just before sunset.
5. Thursday, April 22: Earth Day. The organizers’ 2027 theme is food for our planet. Plant a native tree or start a garden bed for pollinators.
6. Thursday, April 22: Lyrids. Poor with the bright Moon, but try the first hour after dark.
7. All month: nest watching. Cornell’s NestWatch lets you monitor a bird box and enter results. Write down when each pair arrives.
8. April 30 to May 3: City Nature Challenge. This worldwide count of wild plants and animals uses these dates in 2027. Check whether your area is taking part.

Browse the rest of the nature section, and keep a Naturalist’s Field Journal in your pack. For the month before, see Arkansas in March.

• Hunting. Spring turkey season is open in April. Youth hunt April 10 and 11; zone 3 April 5 to 25; zones 2 and 2A from April 12; zones 1 and 1A from April 19 (see the turkey section). Shooting hours stop 30 minutes after sunset and start 30 minutes before sunrise. The spring light-goose season for snow, blue and Ross’s geese continues through April 25, with shooting starting half an hour before sunrise and ending half an hour after sunset. Deer, bear and elk seasons are closed, and trapping seasons ended March 31.
• Blaze orange. The Commission requires hunter orange where modern gun or alternative-firearms deer, bear or elk seasons are open. None is open in April, so the rule does not apply to spring turkey and goose hunters. Bright clothing is still smart when sharing public land.
• Severe weather. Know your shelter, set your phone to wake you for a warning, and treat every tornado warning as real. Do not drive through flooded roads.
• Floating and cold water. Spring flow can be high and cold on the Buffalo and other streams. Wear a life jacket, check gauges and stay off swollen water.
• Ticks. University of Arkansas extension reports that lone star and American dog ticks are the main spring species. It advises repellent with DEET or permethrin-treated clothing, light colors that show ticks, and prompt removal with tweezers. Put clothes in a hot dryer after outings.
• Snakes and wildlife. Watch where you put hands and feet in brush and rock piles. Do not touch turtles, nestlings or fawn-like young; adults are usually close.
• Alligators. In the south, keep pets and children away from the water’s edge.
• Caves. Stay out of caves used by bats.