Getting tired of observing the bleak Chicago winter landscape? Filmmaker Samuel Orr has you covered with a short film of the world coming to life then fading back into cold weather torpor.

Orr, who lives just outside Bloomington, Indiana, is a nature documentarian for PBS. In his spare time, he set up a camera peeking out his back window, taking 40,000 photos over the course of 16 months. Using the photos, Orr assembled the video depicting a year in the Midwest forest.

Orr also wove in local sounds in accordance to the time of year on the screen, playing the calls of Sandhill Cranes migrating overhead in early spring. It’s enough to warm up even the most seasoned Chicagoan.