Winter birds

March 20.

As to the winter birds, - those which came here in the winter, - I saw first that rusty sparrow-like bird flying in flocks with the smaller sparrows early in the winter and sliding down the grass stems to their seeds, which clucked like a hen, and F. Brown thought to be the young of the purple finch; then I saw, about Thanksgiving time and later in the winter, the pine grosbeaks, large and carmine, a noble bird; then, in midwinter, the snow bunting, the white snowbird, sweeping low like snowflakes from field to field over the walls and fences. 

And now, within a day or two, I have noticed the chubby slate-colored snowbird (Fringilla hyemalis?), and I drive the flocks before me on the railroad causeway as I walk. It has two white feathers in its tail. 

It is cold as winter to-day, the ground still covered with snow, and the stars twinkle as in winter night.


H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 20, 1852

As to the birds which came here in the winter. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Winter Birds

Pine grosbeaks and the snow bunting. See December 24, 1851 (“It spits snow this afternoon. Saw a flock of snowbirds on the Walden road.. . .The snow bunting (Emberiza nivalis) methinks it is, so white and arctic, not the slate-colored. Saw also some pine grosbeaks, magnificent winter birds.”) See also Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Snow Bunting

I have noticed the chubby slate-colored snowbird (Fringilla hyemalis?) See March 20, 1855 ("At my landing I hear the F. hyemalis,”); March 20, 1858 ("The note of the F. hyemalis, or chill-lill, is a jingle, with also a shorter and drier crackling or shuffling chip as it flits by."); March 19, 1858 (Hear the pleasant chill-lill of the F. hyemalis,the first time have heard this note.") See also A Book of the Seasons by Henry Thoreau, the Dark-eyed Junco (Fringilla hyemalis) and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,Signs of the Spring, the note of the dark-eyed junco going northward