Is spring sprung?

I heard something strange while walking the other night.

It was nearly nine o'clock, very dark and very cold, but I heard birds! I am used to hearing geese, the occasional duck and crows, but I heard cardinals!

Cardinals are not all that unusual in the winter around here, but they are unusual at night and I haven't heard, or seen, hardly any small birds in months.

I haven't been able to walk since then. I did something to my knee again and have had to stay off it, but today I went out to run some errands and there were birds everywhere. I saw cardinals, starlings, even robins.

Forget the groundhog. 

The real harbingers of spring are robins (and the buds on the tulip magnolia outside my window.)

Spring may not be sprung yet, but it's got to be close.