Fall birding on the River: sparrows.

October 8. 

October 8, 2014

On river. — Flocks of tree sparrows by river, slightly warbling. Hear a song sparrow sing. See apparently white-throated sparrows hopping under covert of the button-bushes. 

Found my boat yesterday full of willow leaves after the rain. 

See no tortoises now on the rocks and boards. It is too cold.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 8, 1855

Hear a song sparrow sing. See October 8, 1856 ("A song sparrow utters a full strain.”) See also  October 9, 1851 ("I hear a song sparrow singing on the willows exactly as in spring."); T. October 26, 1855 ("he song sparrow still sings on a button-bush"); November 23, 1853 ("I suspect that the song sparrow lingers as late, here and there alone, as any migrating bird") See also A Book of the Seasons,    by Henry Thoreau, the Song Sparrow (Fringilla melodia)

Found my boat yesterday full of willow leaves after the rain. See  note to  October 8, 1858 ("The button-bushes and black willows are rapidly losing leaves, and the shore begins to look Novemberish."). See also  October 4, 1857  ("The yellow leaves of the white willow thickly strew the bottom of my boat. These willows shed their oldest leaves first, even like pines. The recent and green ones are seen mottling a yellowish ground, especially in the willow; and, in the case of the willow, at least, these green ones wither and fall for the most part without turning yellow at all.");  May 3, 1853 ('The willows (Salix alba) where I keep my boat resound with the hum of bees and other insects"); and A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, A Book of the Seasons: White Willow (Salix Alba)