Overcast and cold – yet quite a concert of birds along the river.

March 22.

6.30 A. M. — To Hill. 

Overcast and cold. Yet there is quite a concert of birds along the river; the song sparrows are very lively and musical, and the blackbirds already sing o-gurgle ee-e-e from time to time on the top of a willow or elm or maple, but oftener a sharp, shrill whistle or a tchuck. 

I also hear a short, regular robin song, though many are flitting about with hurried note. 

The bluebird faintly warbles, with such ventriloquism that I thought him further off. He requires a warmer air.

The jays scream. I hear the downy woodpecker’s rapid tapping and my first distinct spring note (phe-be) of the chickadee. 

The river has skimmed over a rod in breadth along the sides. 

See a heavy-flapping, bittern-like bird flying northeast. It was small for a fish hawk. Can it be the stake-driver ? or a gull? 

A (probably meadow) mouse nest in the low meadow by stone bridge, where it must have been covered with water a month ago; probably made in fall. Low in the grass, a little dome four inches in diameter, with no sign of entrance, it being very low on one side. Made of fine meadow-grass. 


P. M. — Fair Haven Pond via Conantum. 

I have noticed crows in the meadows ever since they were first partially bare, three weeks ago. 

I hear a song sparrow on an alder-top sing ozit ozit oze-e-e | (quick) tchip tchip tchip tchip tchay |  te tchip ter che ter tchay; also the same shortened and very much varied. Hear one sing uninterruptedly, i.e. without a pause, almost a minute. 

I cross Fair Haven Pond, including the river, on the ice, and probably can for three or four days yet.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 22, 1855

The blackbirds already sing o-gurgle ee-e-e . . .but oftener a sharp, shrill whistle or a tchuck. See March 18, 1858 ("When the blackbird gets to a conqueree he seems to be dreaming of the sprays that are to be and on which he is to perch.") ; March 19, 1853 ("This morning I hear the blackbird's fine clear whistle and also his sprayey note, as he is swayed back and forth on the twigs of the elm or of the black willow over the river. His first note may be a chuck, but his second is a rich gurgle or warble."); March 19, 1858 ("The red-wing's gurgle-ee is heard when smooth waters begin; they come together."). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring The Red-wing Arrives

A short, regular robin song, though many are flitting about with hurried note. See March 12, 1854 ("I hear my first robin peep distinctly at a distance. No singing yet."); March 18, 1858 ("The robin does not come singing, but utters a somewhat anxious or inquisitive peep at first."); March 21, 1853 ("Robins are now quite abundant, flying in flocks.. . . I hear [one] meditating a bar to be sung . . .However, they do not yet get to melody. ")See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring, the anxious peep of the early robin

The bluebird faintly warbles, with such ventriloquism that I thought him further off. See March 7, 1854 ("Hear the first bluebird, — something like pe-a-wor, — and then other slight warblings, as if farther off. Am surprised to see the bird within seven or eight rods on the top of an oak by the orchard's edge under the hill. But he appears silent, while I hear others faintly warbling and twittering far in the orchard. When he flies I hear no more, and I suspect that he has been ventriloquizing".). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Listening for the Bluebird

My first distinct spring note (phe-be) of the chickadee. See February 24, 1857 ("A chickadee with its winter lisp flits over, and I think it is time to hear its phebe note, and that instant it pipes it forth."); March 1, 1854 ("I hear the phoebe or spring note of the chickadee, and the scream of the jay is perfectly repeated by the echo from a neighboring wood."); March 1, 1856 ("I hear several times the fine-drawn phe-be note of the chickadee, which I heard only once during the winter. Singular that I should hear this on the first spring day."); March 8, 1853 (" Heard the phebe, or spring note of the chickadee, now, before any spring bird has arrived."); March 10, 1852 (" Hear the phoebe note of the chickadee to-day for the first time. "); March 19, 1858 ("Hear the phebe note of a chickadee."); March 21, 1859 ("It is peculiarly interesting that this, which is one of our winter birds also, should have a note with which to welcome the spring."); March 22, 1860 ("The phenomena of an average March . . . About twenty-nine migratory birds arrive (including hawks and crows), and two or three more utter their spring notes and sounds, as nuthatch and chickadee, turkeys, and woodpecker tapping.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: the spring note of the chickadee

Woodpecker’s rapid tapping. See March 22, 1853 ("The tapping of the woodpecker, rat-tat-tat, knocking at the door of some sluggish grub to tell him that the spring has arrived, and his fate, this is one of the season sounds, calling the roll of birds and insects, the reveille. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring, woodpeckers tapping

A (probably meadow) mouse nest . . . made in fall. Low in the grass, a little dome four inches in diameter, with no sign of entrance, it being very low on one side. What Thoreau calls the meadow mouse or "short-tailed meadow mouse" or Arvicola hirsuta is ow known as Microtus pennsylvanicus, meadow vole.  See August 25, 1858 (“The short-tailed meadow mouse, or Arvicola hirsuta.  Generally above,  it is very dark brown, almost blackish, being browner forward. It is also dark beneath. Tail but little more than one inch long . . .Its nose is not sharp.”); January 10, 1853 (" I found thirty-five chestnuts in a little pile under the end of a stick under the leaves, near — within a foot of — what I should call a gallery of a meadow mouse. These galleries were quite common as I raked."); March 15, 1855("Mr. Rice tells me that . . . he heard a squeaking and found that he was digging near the nest of what he called a " field mouse," – by his description probably the meadow mouse. It was made of grass, etc., and, while he stood over it, the mother, not regarding him, came and carried off the young, one by one, in her mouth,"); April 7, 1855 ("mouse-nest of grass, in Stow's meadow east of railroad, on the surface. Just like those seen in the rye-field some weeks ago, but this in lower ground has a distinct gallery running from it, and I think is the nest of the meadow mouse. "), See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Wild Mouse and Thompson , Natural History of Vermont, (Meadow mouse nests are sometimes constructed in their burrows, and are also found at the season of hay harvest, in great numbers, among the vegetation upon the surface of the ground. They are built of coarse straw, lined with fine soft leaves, somewhat in the manner of a bird's nest, with this difference, that they are covered at the top, and the passage into them is from beneath.")

I have noticed crows in the meadows ever since they were first partially bare. See March 22, 1854 ("See crows along the water's edge. What do they eat?").; March 22, 1856 ("Many tracks of crows in snow along the edge of the open water against Merrick’s at Island. They thus visit the edge of water—this and brooks —before any ground is exposed. Is it for small shellfish?”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the American Crow

The song sparrows are very lively and musical… I hear a song sparrow on an alder-top sing. See March 21, 1853 ("These song sparrows are now first heard commonly."); March 21, 1855 ("The song sparrows are heard from the willow and alder rows . . . It is the most steady and resolute singer as yet. ")  See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: the Song Sparrow Sings

I cross Fair Haven Pond, including the river, on the ice, and probably can for three or four days yet.. . . See March 4, 1855 ("River channel fairly open."); March 19, 1855 ("Launch my boat. Paddle to Fair Haven. . . .I am surprised to find that the river has not yet worn through Fair Haven Pond."); March 24, 1855 (" I crossed Fair Haven Pond yesterday, and could have crossed the channel there again."); March 28, 1855 ("The river has not yet quite worn its way through Fair Haven Pond, but probably will to-morrow."); March 29, 1855 ("Fair Haven Pond only just open over the channel of the river."); March 31, 1855 (" Looking from the Cliffs I see that Fair Haven Pond will open by day after to-morrow."); April 4, 1855 ("I am surprised to find Fair Haven Pond not yet fully open. There is a large mass of ice in the eastern bay, which will hardly melt to morrow.") Compare  March 17, 1854("Fair Haven is open for half a dozen rods about the shores. If this weather holds, it will be entirely open in a day or two."); March 22, 1854 ("Launch boat and paddle to Fair Haven . . . Fair Haven still covered and frozen anew in part."); March 29, 1854 (" Fair Haven half open; channel wholly open."); April 7, 1854 ("Fair Haven is completely open."); April 9, 1854 ("Fair Haven must have opened entirely the 5th or 6th. "); March 26, 1860 ("Fair Haven Pond may be open by the 20th of March, as this year [1860], or not till April 13 as in '56,")

Overcast and cold –

yet quite a concert of birds

along the river.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Quite a concert of birds.

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

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-550322

We strap some lumber to a sled and take it out to the fort this is not as easy and I bring the empty sled back and leave it on the trail as we decide to explore the northwest corner of our Land we work our way down the cliff and then further to the north on this flat spot that seems so perfect for walking and find a place where a hemlock has fallen and opens up the view the wind is blowing in the trees but it is a sunny and  sheltered spot and we sit on the pine needles and Jane discovers life of various kinds turning green and starting to grow.

Buda sits and looks over the edge wearing his green jacket the sunshine screens through the hemlock and we both take pictures of him  from our own angles then walk south down the cliff and down the lane with the large trees into the wetland now easy to walk because of the ice to the old yellow birch which is our corner then walk back south and up the little ravine up to the top of the leek ledge clearing and eventually home. 

A cold and blustery day but the snow is perfectly frozen and easy walking.

Cold and blustery

but the snow is frozen

and easy walking.

March 22, 2015

zphx