April snow improves the birding

April 15.

Morning. — Snow and snowing; four inches deep.

Yesterday was very cold. Now, I trust, it will come down and out of the air. Many birds must be hard put to it. Some tree sparrows and song sparrows have got close up to the sill of the house on the south side, where there is a line of grass visible, for shelter. When Father came down this morning he found a sparrow squatting in a chair in the kitchen.

 P. M. — This cold, moist, snowy day it is easier to see the birds and get near them. They are driven to the first bare ground that shows itself in the road, and the weather, etc., makes them more indifferent to your approach. The yellow redpoll hops along the limbs within four or five feet of me. The tree sparrows look much stouter and more chubby than usual, their feathers being puffed up and darker also, perhaps with wet. Also the robins and bluebirds are puffed up. 

The Purple Finch

I see the white under sides of many purple finches, busily and silently feeding on the elm blossoms within a few feet of me, and now and then their bloody heads and breasts. They utter a faint, clear chip. Their feathers are much ruffled. The arrival of the purple finches appears to be coincident with the blossoming of the elm, on whose blossom it feeds. 

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 15, 1854

Snow and snowing; four inches deep. See note to April 2, 1861 ("A drifting snow-storm, perhaps a foot deep on an average.")

The yellow redpoll hops along the limbs within four or five feet of me. See April 15, 1856 ("I hear a bird sing, a-chitter chitter chitter chitter chitter chitter, che che che che, with increasing intensity and rapidity, and the yellow redpoll hops in sight.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Yellow Redpoll ( Palm) Warbler

The arrival of the purple finches appears to be coincident with the blossoming of the elm. See April 15, 1856 ("The purple finch is singing on the elms "); April 15, 1852 ("The broad flat brown buds on Mr. Cheney's elm, containing twenty or thirty yellowish-green threads, surmounted with little brownish-mulberry cups, which contain the stamens and the two styles, -- these are just expanding or blossoming now. "). See also April 3, 1858 ("I am surprised by the rich strain of the purple finch from the elms"); April 11, 1853 ("I hear the clear, loud whistle of a purple finch, somewhat like and nearly as loud as the robin, from the elm by Whiting's.”). April 12, 1855 ("I hear a purple finch . . . on an elm, steadily warbling and uttering a sharp chip from time to time"). Also see A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Elms and the Purple Finch