The waters, too, are smooth and full of reflections..

April 14. 

6 A. M. —To Island. 

April 14, 2017

An overcast and moist day, but truly April—no sun all day—like such as began methinks on Fast Day, or the 5th. You cannot foretell how it will turn out. 

The river has been steadily rising since the first of April, though you would not think there had been rain enough to cause it. It now covers the meadows pretty respectably. It is perhaps because the warm rain has been melting the frost in the ground. This may be the great cause of the regular spring rise. 

I see half a dozen crow blackbirds uttering their coarse rasping char char, like great rusty springs, on the top of an elm by the riverside; and often at each char they open their great tails. They also attain to a clear I whistle with some effort, but seem to have some difficulty in their throats yet. 

The Populus tremuloides by the Island shed pollen — a very few catkins — yesterday at least; for some anthers are effete and black this morning, though it  is hardly curved down yet an is but an inch and a half long at most. 

White maples are now generally in bloom. 

The musk tortoise stirring on the bottom.

Most of the stellaria has been winter-killed, but I find a few flowers on a protected and still green sprig, probably not blossomed long. 

At 8 A. M. — Took caterpillars’ eggs from the apple trees at the Texas house and found about thirty. 

It being completely overcast, having rained a little, the robins, etc., sing at 4.30 as at sundown usually.

The waters, too, are smooth and full of reflections.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 14, 1855

The Populus tremuloides by the Island shed pollen. See April 9, 1853 ("The Populus tremuliformis, just beyond, resound with the hum of honey-bees, flies, etc. These male trees are frequently at a great distance from the females. Do not the bees and flies alone carry the pollen to the latter?"). See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,  the Aspens.

Overcast, having rained, the robins sing at 4.30 as at sundown.  See April 1, 1857 ("It is a true April evening, feeling and looking as if it would rain, and already I hear a robin or two singing their evening song."); April 13, 1852 ("Heard the robin singing as usual last night, though it was raining. "); April 16, 1856 ("The robin sings most before 6 o’clock now.”); May 14, 1852 (“The robin sings this louring day. . . . The song of the robin is most suggestive in cloudy weather.”). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Robins in Spring

The waters, too, are smooth and full of reflections. See April 14, 1852 ("So perfectly calm and beautiful, and yet no man looking at it this morning but myself."); April 15, 1855 ("The reflections of the maples, of Ponkawtasset and the poplar hill, and the whole township in the southwest, are as perfect as I ever saw.")