It is surprising how little most of us are contented to know about the sparrows which drift about in the air before us just before the first snows. These little sparrows with white in tail, perhaps the prevailing bird of late, have flitted before me so many falls and springs, yet they have been strangers to me.
I have not inquired whence they came or whither they were going, or what
their habits are. It is remarkable how little we attend to what is passing
before us constantly, unless our genius directs our attention that way.
The witch-hazel spray is peculiar and interesting, with
little knubs at short intervals, zig zag, crinkle-crankle. How happens it? Did
the leaves grow so close? The bud is long against the stem, with a neck to it.
The fever bush has small roundish buds, two or three commonly together, probably the blossom-buds.
The alternate cornel, small, very dark reddish buds, on forking, smooth, slender twigs at long intervals.
The panicled andromeda, minute pointed red buds, hugging the curving stems.
The fever bush has small roundish buds, two or three commonly together, probably the blossom-buds.
The alternate cornel, small, very dark reddish buds, on forking, smooth, slender twigs at long intervals.
The panicled andromeda, minute pointed red buds, hugging the curving stems.
The plump, roundish,
club-shaped, well-protected buds of the alders, and rich purplish or mulberry
catkins, three, four, or five together.
The red maple buds, showing three or more sets of scales.
The remarkable roundish, plump red buds of the high blueberry.
The four-sided, long spear-head-shaped buds of the Viburnum Lentago, at the end of forked twigs, probably blossom-buds, with minute leaf-buds lower on sides of twigs.
The red maple buds, showing three or more sets of scales.
The remarkable roundish, plump red buds of the high blueberry.
The four-sided, long spear-head-shaped buds of the Viburnum Lentago, at the end of forked twigs, probably blossom-buds, with minute leaf-buds lower on sides of twigs.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, November 6, 1853
The sparrows which drift about in the air before us just before the first snows. These little sparrows with white in tail, perhaps the prevailing bird of late. See November 1, 1851 ("At this season there are stranger sparrows or finches about."); November 2, 1853 ("What are those sparrows in loose flocks which I have seen two or three weeks, . . .whitish over and beneath the eye, and some white observed in tail when they fly?. . . Can they be the grass-bird ? They resemble it in marking. They are much larger than the tree sparrows. Methinks it is a very common fall bird."); November 4, 1860 (" Thus the birch begins to shed its seed about the time our winter birds arrive from the north."); November 4, 1855("See some large flocks of F. hyemalis . . . rise in a body from the ground and fly to the trees as you approach. There are a few tree sparrows with them."); November 5, 1854 ("I think it is the fox-colored sparrow I see in flocks and hear sing now by wood-sides."): November 7, 1855 (" I hear a few tree sparrows in one place on the trees and bushes near the river, — a clear, chinking chirp and a half-strain.”)
The sparrows which drift about in the air before us just before the first snows. These little sparrows with white in tail, perhaps the prevailing bird of late. See November 1, 1851 ("At this season there are stranger sparrows or finches about."); November 2, 1853 ("What are those sparrows in loose flocks which I have seen two or three weeks, . . .whitish over and beneath the eye, and some white observed in tail when they fly?. . . Can they be the grass-bird ? They resemble it in marking. They are much larger than the tree sparrows. Methinks it is a very common fall bird."); November 4, 1860 (" Thus the birch begins to shed its seed about the time our winter birds arrive from the north."); November 4, 1855("See some large flocks of F. hyemalis . . . rise in a body from the ground and fly to the trees as you approach. There are a few tree sparrows with them."); November 5, 1854 ("I think it is the fox-colored sparrow I see in flocks and hear sing now by wood-sides."): November 7, 1855 (" I hear a few tree sparrows in one place on the trees and bushes near the river, — a clear, chinking chirp and a half-strain.”)
It is remarkable how little we attend to what is passing before us... See November 8, 1857 ("How silently and unobserved by most do these changes take place!"); November 4, 1858 ("We cannot see any thing until we are possessed with the idea of it.”); November 3, 1861 ("All this is perfectly distinct to an observant eye, and yet could easily pass unnoticed by most."); See also January 5, 1860 ("A man receives only what he is ready to receive . . . He does not observe the phenomenon that cannot be linked with the rest which he has observed, however novel and remarkable it may be. A man tracks himself through life, apprehending only what he already half knows.”)
. . .unless our genius directs our attention that way. See June 23, 1851 ("My genius makes distinctions which my understanding cannot, and which my senses do not report.”); March 21, 1853 ("We become, as it were, pliant and ductile again to strange but memorable influences; - we are led a little way by our genius.”); March 22, 1853 ("I am waked by my genius, surprised to find myself expecting the dawn in so serene and joyful and expectant a mood.”); September 2, 1856 ("It commonly chances that I make my most interesting botanical discoveries when I am in a thrilled and expectant mood").
Buds. See October 30, 1853 ("Now, now is the time to look at the buds.”); November 4, 1854 ("The shad-bush buds have expanded into small leaflets already.”); December 1, 1852 ("At this season I observe the form of the buds which are prepared for spring."); December 6, 1856 ("Our eyes go searching along the stems for what is most vivacious and characteristic, the concentrated summer gone into winter quarters."); January 12, 1855 ("Well may the tender buds attract us at this season, no less than partridges, for they are the hope of the year, the spring rolled up. The summer is all packed in them.")
The four-sided, long spear-head-shaped buds of the Viburnum Lentago. See April 11, 1852 ("Is that the Viburnum Lentago with the spear-shaped buds?"). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Viburnum lentago (nannyberry)
November 6. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, November 6
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Noticing buds
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 © 2009-2024
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