Birds do not distinguish a man sitting in a boat.

A Gawky Bird

July 12.

Many young barn swallows sit in flocks on the bared dead willows over the water and let me float within four or five feet. 

Birds do not distinguish a man sitting in a boat. 

I see a green bittern wading in a shallow muddy place, with an awkward teetering, fluttering pace. 

Observe a pickerel in the Assabet, about a foot long, headed up stream, quasi-transparent (such its color), with darker and lighter parts contrasted, very still while I float quite near. 

There is a constant motion of the pectoral fins and also a waving motion of the ventrals, apparently to resist the stream, and a slight waving of the anal, apparently to preserve its direction. It darts off at last by a strong sculling motion of its tail. 

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 12, 1854

July 12. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, July 12

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 © 2009-2021