Spring sprung on Sunday as March 20 was the first official day of the season for 2011.

But for a lot of West Texas folks, the real sign of spring is budding mesquite trees, and that's beginning to happen around the Big Country.

The trees are known to be the best indicator of spring's arrival as the plants wait to bud until there's relatively no chance of another freeze.

However, Taylor County Extension Agent Robert Pritz says not to get too excited just yet.

"That's just the little mesquite trees, and if you talk to a lot of people around here, we really don't have a lot of confidence until we start seeing some of the larger mesquite trees trying to leaf out ? that we really feel comfortable saying we received our final freeze," Pritz said.

Pritz says on average we see our last freeze by March 22, but that we've also had snow as late as Easter. Pritz adds that what may be a better sign of spring is the arrival of the Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher birds.