A cloudy, still, damp, and at length drizzling day.
P.M. — To Bayberry and Black Ash Cellar.
Wheildon’s arbor-vitae well out, maybe for a week.
The silvery abele, probably to-day or yesterday, but I do not see pollen.
The blossoms of the red maple (some a yellowish green) are now most generally conspicuous and handsome scarlet crescents over the swamps.
Going over Ponkawtasset, hear a golden-crested wren, — the robin’s note, etc., —in the tops of the high wood; see myrtle-birds and half a dozen pigeons.
The prate of the last is much like the creaking of a tree. They lift their wings at the same moment as they sit. There are said to be many about now. See their warm-colored breasts.
I see pigeon woodpeckers billing on an oak at a distance.
Young apple leafing, say with the common rose, also some early large ones. Bayberry not started much. Fever-bush out apparently a day or two, between Black Birch Cellar and Easterbrook’s. It shows plainly now, before the leaves have come out on bushes, twenty rods off.
See and hear chewinks, — all their strains; the same date with last year, by accident.
Many male and female white-throated sparrows feeding on the pasture with the song sparrow. The male’s white is buff in the female.
A brown thrasher seen at a little distance.
The silvery abele, probably to-day or yesterday, but I do not see pollen.
The blossoms of the red maple (some a yellowish green) are now most generally conspicuous and handsome scarlet crescents over the swamps.
Going over Ponkawtasset, hear a golden-crested wren, — the robin’s note, etc., —in the tops of the high wood; see myrtle-birds and half a dozen pigeons.
The prate of the last is much like the creaking of a tree. They lift their wings at the same moment as they sit. There are said to be many about now. See their warm-colored breasts.
I see pigeon woodpeckers billing on an oak at a distance.
Young apple leafing, say with the common rose, also some early large ones. Bayberry not started much. Fever-bush out apparently a day or two, between Black Birch Cellar and Easterbrook’s. It shows plainly now, before the leaves have come out on bushes, twenty rods off.
See and hear chewinks, — all their strains; the same date with last year, by accident.
Many male and female white-throated sparrows feeding on the pasture with the song sparrow. The male’s white is buff in the female.
A brown thrasher seen at a little distance.
April 26, 2025
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 26, 1855
This mizzling and still day . .. the robin sings with more vigor and promise. See April 26, 1854 ("Birds sing all day when it is warm, still, and overcast as now"); April 16, 1856 ("The robins sing with a will now . . . A moist, misty, rain-threatening April day. About noon it does mizzle a little. The robin sings throughout it.”); May 14, 1852 (“The robin sings this louring day. They sang most in and about that great freshet storm. 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 blossoms of the red maple (some a yellowish green) are now most generally conspicuous and handsome scarlet crescents over the swamps. See April 26, 1860 ("Red maples are past prime. I have noticed their handsome crescents over distant swamps commonly for some ten days. At height, then, say the 21st. They are especially handsome when seen between you and the sunlit trees."); See also April 18, 1856 ("Red maple stamens in some places project considerably, and it will probably blossom to-morrow if it is pleasant. "); April 22, 1855 ("Red maple yesterday, — an early one by further stone bridge."); April 23, 1856 ("The red maple did not shed pollen on the 19th and could not on the 20th, 21st, or 22d, on account of rain; so this must be the first day, — the 23d."); April 24, 1854 ("The first red maple blossoms — so very red over the water — are very interesting. ");April 24, 1857 ("I see the now red crescents of the red maples in their prime . . . above the gray stems."); April 28, 1855 ("The red maples, now in bloom, are quite handsome at a distance over the flooded meadow beyond Peter’s. The abundant wholesome gray of the trunks and stems beneath surmounted by the red or scarlet crescents.”); April 29, 1856 ("Sat on the knoll in the swamp, now laid bare. How pretty a red maple in bloom (they are now in prime), seen in the sun against a pine wood, like these little ones in the swamp against the neighboring wood, they are so light and ethereal,
See myrtle-birds. See April 26, 1854 (“The woods are full of myrtle-birds this afternoon”); and note to April 28, 1855 (“There are a great many myrtle-birds here, — they have been quite common for a week,”)
Hear a golden-crested wren. See April 26, 1860 ("Hear the ruby-crowned wren in the morning, near George Heywood's."). See also May 7, 1854 ("A ruby-crested wren. . .Saw its ruby crest and heard its harsh note. (This was the same I have called golden-crowned . . . except that I saw its ruby crest.. ..Have I seen the two?)”) May 6, 1855 ("Hear at a distance a ruby(?)-crowned wren, . . . I think this the only Regulus I have ever seen.”); December 25, 1859 ("I hear a sharp fine screep from some bird,. . . I can see a brilliant crown. . . . It is evidently the golden-crested wren, which I have not made out before.”). Also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau: the ruby-crowned or crested wren.
I see pigeon woodpeckers billing on an oak at a distance. See April 23, 1855 ("Saw two pigeon woodpeckers approach and, I think, put their bills together and utter that o-week, o-week."); April 25, 1855 ("Hear the peculiar squeaking notes of a pigeon woodpecker. ")
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Pigeon Woodpecker (flicker)
Young apple leafing. See May 7, 1858 ("The earliest apple trees begin to leave and to show green veils against the ground and the sky. "); May 21, 1860 ("Noticed the shadows of apple trees yesterday.")
Many male and female white-throated sparrows. . . The male’s white is buff in the female. See April 25, 1855 ("Hear a faint cheep and at length detect the white throated sparrow, the handsome and well-marked bird. "); April 25, 1854 ("[Saw] on the low bushes, — shrub oaks, etc., — by path, a large sparrow with ferruginous- brown and white-barred wings, — the white-throated sparrow, — uttered a faint ringing chirp.") see also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the White-throated Sparrow
A brown thrasher seen at a little distance. See May 4, 1855 ("Hear a brown thrasher.") May 12, 1855 ("The brown thrasher is a powerful singer; he is a quarter of a mile off across the river, when he sounded within fifteen rods." );May 13, 1855 ("Now, about two hours before sunset, the brown thrashers are particularly musical. One seems to be contending in song with another. The chewink’s strain sounds quite humble in comparison.") See alao A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Brown Thrasher
And the robin sings with more vigor and promise than later in the season. See April 21, 1852 ("The robins sing through the ceaseless rain . . . It sings with power, like a bird of great faith that sees the bright future through the dark present . . . It is a pure, immortal melody . . . I have not this season heard more robins sing than this rainy day.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Robins in Spring
April 26. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, April 26
And the robin sings
with more vigor and promise
this mizzling still day.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, We see and hear more birds than usual this mizzling and still day.
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-550426
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