A kingfisher with his crack, — cr-r-r-rack.
Rain yesterday and to-day; yet this morning the robin sings and the blackbirds and, in the yard, the tree sparrow, hyemalis, and song sparrow. A rain is sure to bring the tree sparrow and hyemalis to the gardens.
The first April showers are even fuller of promise and a certain moist serenity than the sunny days. How thickly the green blades are starting up amid the russet! The tinge of green is gradually increasing in the face of the russet earth.
P. M. — To Lee's Cliff on foot. See my white-headed eagle again, first at the same place, the outlet of Fair Haven Pond. It is a fine sight, he is mainly — i.e. his wings and body — so black against the sky, and they contrast so strongly with his white head and tail. He first flies low over the water; then rises gradually and circles westward toward White Pond.
Lying on the ground with my glass, I watch him very easily, and by turns he gives me all possible views of himself. Now I see him edgewise like a black ripple in the air, his white head still as ever turned to earth, and now he turns his under side to me, and I behold the full breadth of his broad black wings, some what ragged at the edges.
When I observe him edgewise I notice that the tips of his wings curve upward slightly.
He rises very high at last, till I almost lose him in the clouds, circling or rather looping along westward, high over river and wood and farm, effectually concealed in the sky. We who live this plodding life here below never know how many eagles fly over us.
I think I have got the worth of my glass now that it has revealed to me the white-headed eagle.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 23, 1854
A kingfisher with his crack, — cr-r-r-rack. See April 24, 1854 ("The kingfisher flies with a crack cr-r-r-ack and a limping or flitting flight from tree to tree before us, and finally, after a third of a mile, circles round to our rear. He sits rather low over the water. Now that he has come I suppose that the fishes on which he preys rise within reach.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau. The Kingfisher
The tinge of green is gradually increasing in the face of the russet earth. See April 14, 1854 ("There is a general tinge of green now discernible through the russet on the bared meadows and the hills, the green blades just peeping forth amid the withered ones."); April 28, 1854 ("Perhaps the greenness of the landscape may be said to begin fairly now . . . During the last half of April the earth acquires a distinct tinge of green, which finally prevails over the russet."). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Colors of March-- Brown Season
April 23, 2022
P. M. — To Lee's Cliff on foot. See my white-headed eagle again, first at the same place, the outlet of Fair Haven Pond. It is a fine sight, he is mainly — i.e. his wings and body — so black against the sky, and they contrast so strongly with his white head and tail. He first flies low over the water; then rises gradually and circles westward toward White Pond.
Lying on the ground with my glass, I watch him very easily, and by turns he gives me all possible views of himself. Now I see him edgewise like a black ripple in the air, his white head still as ever turned to earth, and now he turns his under side to me, and I behold the full breadth of his broad black wings, some what ragged at the edges.
He rises very high at last, till I almost lose him in the clouds, circling or rather looping along westward, high over river and wood and farm, effectually concealed in the sky. We who live this plodding life here below never know how many eagles fly over us.
I think I have got the worth of my glass now that it has revealed to me the white-headed eagle.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 23, 1854
A kingfisher with his crack, — cr-r-r-rack. See April 24, 1854 ("The kingfisher flies with a crack cr-r-r-ack and a limping or flitting flight from tree to tree before us, and finally, after a third of a mile, circles round to our rear. He sits rather low over the water. Now that he has come I suppose that the fishes on which he preys rise within reach.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau. The Kingfisher
Rain yesterday and to-day . . . and, in the yard, the tree sparrow, hyemalis, and song sparrow. A rain is sure to bring the tree sparrow and hyemalis to the gardens. See April 23, 1859 (" Rain, rain.. . .The tree sparrows abundant and singing in the yard, but I have not noticed a hyemalis of late. The field sparrow sings in our yard in the rain") See also A Book of the Seasons by Henry Thoreau, Birds in the Rain
The white-headed eagle. See April 8, 1854 (“A perfectly white head and tail and broad or blackish wings. It sailed and circled along over the low cliff, and the crows dived at it in the field of my glass, and I saw it well.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The White-headed Eagle
The worth of my glass. See March 13, 1854 ("Bought a telescope to-day for eight dollars.")
April 23. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, April 23
The worth of my glass. See March 13, 1854 ("Bought a telescope to-day for eight dollars.")
April 23. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, April 23
White-headed eagle
edgewise like a black ripple
concealed in the sky.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, White-headed eagle concealed in the sky.
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
tinyurl.com/hdt-540423
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