The most steady and resolute singer.

March 21.

6.30 A. M. — To Swamp Bridge Brook. 

Clear, but a very cold westerly wind this morning. Ground frozen very hard. Yet the song sparrows are heard from the willow and alder rows. 

Hear a lark far off in the meadow. 

P. M. — To Bare Hill by railroad. 

Early willow and aspen catkins are very conspicuous now. The silvery down of the former has in some places crept forth from beneath its scales a third of an inch at least. This increased silveriness was obvious, I think, about the first of March, perhaps earlier. It appears to be a very gradual expansion, which begins in the warm days of winter. It would be well to observe them once a fortnight through the winter. It is the first decided growth I have noticed, and is probably a month old.

The song sparrow is now seen dodging behind the wall, with a quirk of its tail, or flitting along the alders or other bushes by the side of the road, especially in low ground, and its pleasant strain is heard at intervals in spite of the cold and blustering wind. It is the most steady and resolute singer as yet, its strain being heard at intervals throughout the day, more than any as yet peopling the hedgerows. 

There is no opening in Flint’s Pond except a very little around the boat-house. 

The tree sparrow, flitting song-sparrow-like through the alders, utters a sharp metallic tcheep. 

In the hollow behind Britton’s Camp, I see seven mouse-holes — probably Mus leucopus — around an old oak stump, all within a foot of it, and many of their droppings at each hole and where they have gnawed off the grass, and indistinct galleries in the grass, extending three or four feet on every side. 

I see red maple sap oozing out and wetting the young trees where there is no obvious wound.

Cross Goose Pond on ice.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 21, 1855

Hear a lark far off in the meadow.  See March 22, 1853 ("Already I hear from the rail road the plaintive strain of a lark or two. They sit now conspicuous on the bare russet ground") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Lark in Early Spring

Early willow and aspen catkins are very conspicuous now. See February 22, 1854 ("My alder catkins in the pitcher have shed their pollen for a day or two, and the willow catkins have pushed out half an inch or more and show red and yellowish.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding

The song sparrows are heard from the willow and alder rows . . . It is the most steady and resolute singer as yet.  See March 21, 1853("These song sparrows are now first heard commonly."); March 22, 1855 ("The song sparrows are very lively and musical… I hear a song sparrow on an alder-top sing. . . Hear one sing uninterruptedly, i.e. without a pause, almost a minute. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: the Song Sparrow Sings

There is no opening in Flint’s Pond except a very little around the boat-house. See March 19, 1854 ("Flint's Pond almost entirely open."); March 21, 1853(" I am surprised to find Flint's Pond not more than half broken up."); March 23, 1853 (" The ice went out ...of Flint's Pond day before yesterday."); March 24, 1854 (" Flint's has perhaps fifteen or twenty acres of ice yet about shores. Can hardly tell when it is open this year."); April 3, 1854 ("I think I may say that Flint's broke up entirely on the first wet day after the cold spell, — i.e. the 31st of March, — though I have not been there lately."), March 29, 1855 ("Flint’s Pond is entirely open; may have been a day or two."); April 1, 1852 (" I am surprised to find Flint's Pond frozen still, which should have been open a week ago. ")

Seven mouse-holes — probably Mus leucopus — around an old oak stump See November 14, 1857 ("A deer mouse (Mus leucopus) . . .our most common wood mouse."); February 20, 1855 ("It is a very pretty and neat little animal for a mouse, with its wholesome reddish - brown sides distinctly bounding on its pure white belly , neat white feet , large slate - colored ears which suggest circumspection and timidity, — ready to earth itself on the least sound of danger , long tail , and numerous whiskers." ); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Wild Mouse

I see red maple sap oozing out and wetting the young trees where there is no obvious wound. See March 14, 1856 ("Just above Pinxter Swamp, one red maple limb was moistened by sap trickling along the bark. Tapping this, I was surprised to find it flow freely."): March 21, 1856 ("The south side of a tree bleeds first in spring. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Red Maple Sap Flows.

March 21.  See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, March 21

Early willow and 

aspen catkins are very 

conspicuous now.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The most steady and resolute singer.

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-550321

We hike up to the lower pond and she wants to veer off onto the neighbor’s land to show me the track of a snow cat or skidder that is been in their woods we end up going around a cliff and up the hill at times the snow turns into post holing I move to the right and she stays left we get separated but the dogs keep in touch with us and we end up meeting along the boundary between Martel and Kendall we are now in that old-growth woods with some very large trees and very large blow downs and we negotiate our way up over to the logging road under the cliff at this point I think I'm halfway but she wants to keep going over the next ridge into the hemlocks where she says it is easier walking and following some of her tracks from yesterday she brings me to an area with three pretty good piles of obviously bear scat. Eventually we find our way down along the moss trail (The snow by the way is soft crust occasionally post hole and for the most part supporting us) we then get over to the west but she does not want to go back up instead we go down towards Clifford Corner and cross lots bushwhack along the ridges to the left of the wetland eventually come out where that very large tree is in the Moose trail and cut across and then down the big slide to the big house wetland up to the boulder by the Birch Trail and down to and over our wetland and out through the Boulder trail a three hour hike home by six, good endorphins.


When separated
the dogs keep in touch with us
post-holing old-growth.

Zphx 20150321