Chip-birds in flocks

October 7

Now and for a week the chip-birds in flocks; the withered grass and weeds, etc., alive with them.

Rice says that when a boy, playing with darts with his brother Israel, one of them sent up his dart when a flock of crows was going over. One of the crows followed it down to the earth, picked it up, and flew off with it a quarter of a mile before it dropped it.

I see one small but spreading white oak full of acorns just falling and ready to fall. When I strike a limb, great numbers fall to the ground. They are a very dark hazel looking black amid the still green leaves, - a singular contrast.

Some that have fallen have already split and sprouted, an eighth of an inch. This when, on some trees, far the greater part have not yet fallen.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 7, 1860

Now and for a week the chip-birds in flocks; the withered grass and weeds, etc., alive with them. See October 2, 1858 ("The garden is alive with migrating sparrows these mornings."); October 5, 1858 ("I still see large flocks, apparently of chip birds, on the weeds and ground in the yard.”)  See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Chipping Sparrow

I see one small but spreading white oak full of acorns just falling and ready to fall. See October 7, 1852  ("There must be in abundance of mast this year. I could gather up nearly a bushel of acorns under one white oak")

Some that have fallen have already split and sprouted. See October 17, 1857 ("How soon they have sprouted! “); November 27, 1852 (“I find acorns which have sent a shoot down into the earth this fall.”)

October 7. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,  October 7

Now and for a week

the chip-birds in flocks on the

withered grass and weeds.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,  Chip-birds in flocks 

 A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality."

 ~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx ©  2009-2026

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-601007