Northern lights last night. Rainbow in east this morning.
6.30 A. M. — The river is low, very low for the season. It has been falling ever since the freshet of February 18th. Now, about sunrise, it is nearly filled with the thin, half cemented ice-crystals of the night, which the warmer temperature of day apparently has loosened. They grate against the bushes and wheel round in great fields with a slight crash and piling up.
I hear the rapid tapping of the woodpecker from over the water.
P. M. — To Hubbard’s Close. I am surprised to see, not only many pollywogs through the thin ice of the warm ditches, but, in still warmer, stagnant, unfrozen holes in this meadow, half a dozen small frogs, probably Rana palustris.
Coming through the stubble of Stow’s rye-field in front of the Breed house, I meet with four mice-nests in going half a dozen rods. They lie flat on the ground amid the stubble; are flattened spheres, the horizontal diameter about five inches, the perpendicular considerably less, composed of grass or finer stubble, and on taking them up you do not at once detect the entrance with your eye, but rather feel it with your finger on the side; lined with the finest of the grass.
These were undoubtedly - probably - made when the snow was on the ground, for their winter residence, while they gleaned the rye-field, and when the snow went off they scampered to the woods. I think they were made by the Mus leucopus.
I look into many woodchucks’ holes, but as yet they are choked with leaves and there is no sign of their having come abroad.
March 13, 2025
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 13, 1855
Northern lights last night. See note to November 5, 1860 ("An arch of northern lights in the north, with some redness."); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Northern Lights
Rainbow in east this morning. See February 23, 1860 ("About 4 P. M. a smart shower, ushered in by thunder and succeeded by a brilliant rainbow and yellow light from under the dark cloud in the west.."); March 15. 1859 ("two brilliant rainbows at sunset, the first of the year."); April 9, 1855 ("In the afternoon it rained, but the sun set clear,. . .producing the first rainbow I have seen or heard of except one long ago in the morning . . . Why are they so rare in the winter? ") and note to May 11, 1854 ("A rainbow on the brow of summer")
I hear the rapid tapping of the woodpecker from over the water. See March 11, 1859 (“But methinks the sound of the woodpecker tapping is as much a spring note as any these mornings; it echoes peculiarly in the air of a spring morning.); March 15, 1854 ("I hear that peculiar, interesting loud hollow tapping of a woodpecker from over the water.”); March 18, 1853 ("The tapping of the woodpecker about this time.”); March 30, 1854 ("At the Island I see and hear this morning the cackle of a pigeon woodpecker at the hollow poplar; had heard him tapping distinctly from my boat's place."); April 14, 1856 ("Hear the flicker’s . . . tapping sounds afar over the water . It is a hollow sound which rings distinct to a great distance, especially over water."); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring, woodpeckers tapping
I meet with four mice-nests. See March 6, 1855 ("a nice warm globular nest some five inches in diameter, amid the sphagnum and cranberry vines , etc., -made of dried grass and lined with a still finer grass. The hole was on one side, and the bottom was near two inches thick. See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Wild Mouse
I am surprised to see, not only many pollywogs through the thin ice of the warm ditches, but, in still warmer, stagnant, unfrozen holes in this meadow, half a dozen small frogs, probably Rana palustris. See February 23, 1857 ("I have seen signs of the spring. I have seen a frog swiftly sinking in a pool, or where he dimpled the surface as he leapt in."); March 7, 1855 ("I see many tadpoles of medium or full size in deep warm ditches in Hubbard’s meadow. They may probably be seen as soon as the ditches are open, thus earlier than frogs."); March 10, 1853 ("Channing says he saw pollywogs."); March 22, 1860 ("The phenomena of an average March . . .salamanders and pollywogs are more commonly seen, and also those little frogs (sylvatica males?) at spring-holes and ditches"); March 30, 1859 ("Little pollywogs two inches long are lively"); April 24, 1858 ("The pollywogs must be a long time growing, for I see those of last year not more than two inches long, also some much larger. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Frogs, and Turtles Stirring
I look into many woodchucks’ holes. See March 5, 1857 ("See the tracks of a woodchuck in the sand-heap about the mouth of his hole, where he has cleared out his entry."); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring; The Woodchuck Ventures Out
The raw, overcast day concludes with snow and hail. See March 14, 1855 ("Three inches of snow in the morning, and it snows a little more during the day, with occasional gleams of sunshine. Winter back again in prospect"); March 15, 1855 ("Foul weather all day, -- at first a fine snow, and finally rain. Now, at 9 P. M., a clear sky. And so the storm which began evening of 13th ends.") See alao January 21, 1855 ("The snow is turning to rain through a fine hail."); March 2, 1854 ("Warm air has come to us from the south, but charged with moisture, which will yet distill in rain or congeal into snow and hail."); March 31, 1852 ("A cold, raw day with alternating hail-like snow and rain.")
March 13, A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, March 13
I hear the rapid
tapping of the woodpecker
over the water.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Northern lights, rainbow, ice, snow, hail, pollywogs and mice.
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 © 2009-2025
https://tinyurl.com/hdt-550313
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