Some sparrow-like birds with yellow on rump flitting about our wood-pile. One flies up against the house and alights on the window-sill within a foot of me inside.
Black bill and feet, yellow rump, brown above, yellowish-brown on head, cream-colored chin, two white bars on wings, tail black, edged with white, — the yellow-rump warbler or myrtle-bird without doubt.
They fly to several windows, though it is not cold.
P. M. - Up Assabet.
The muskrats eat a good many clams now and leave their pearly shells open on the shore. Sometimes I find a little one which they have brought ashore in the night but left entire and alive. The green-rayed ones, – are they not a peculiar light blue within?
I still see the Emys insculpta coupled, the upper holding with its claws under the edge of the lower shell.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 14, 1855
The yellow-rump warbler or myrtle-bird. See October 3, 1859 ("I see on a wall a myrtle-bird in its October dress, looking very much like a small sparrow."); October 5, 1857 ("The myrtle-bird . . . only transiently visit us in spring and fall. "): October 10, 1859 ("White-throated sparrows in yard and close up to house, together with myrtle-birds (which fly up against side of house and alight on window-sills)"); October 15, 1859 ("I think I see myrtle-birds on white birches, and that they are the birds I saw on them a week or two ago, — apparently, or probably, after the birch lice."); October 19, 1856 ("See quite a flock of myrtle-birds, — which I might carelessly have mistaken for slate-colored snowbirds, — flitting about on the rocky hillside under Conantum Cliff. They show about three white or light-colored spots when they fly, commonly no bright yellow, though some are pretty bright."); October 21, 1857 ("I see many myrtle-birds now about the house this forenoon, on the advent of cooler weather. They keep flying up against the house and the window and fluttering there, as if they would come in, or alight on the wood-pile or pump. They would commonly be mistaken for sparrows, but show more white when they fly, beside the yellow on the rump and sides of breast seen near to and two white bars on the wings."); October 28, 1853 ("Little sparrow-sized birds flitting about amid the dry corn stalks and the weeds, — one, quite slaty with black streaks and a bright-yellow crown and rump, which I think is the yellow-crowned warbler,")
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 14, 1855
The yellow-rump warbler or myrtle-bird. See October 3, 1859 ("I see on a wall a myrtle-bird in its October dress, looking very much like a small sparrow."); October 5, 1857 ("The myrtle-bird . . . only transiently visit us in spring and fall. "): October 10, 1859 ("White-throated sparrows in yard and close up to house, together with myrtle-birds (which fly up against side of house and alight on window-sills)"); October 15, 1859 ("I think I see myrtle-birds on white birches, and that they are the birds I saw on them a week or two ago, — apparently, or probably, after the birch lice."); October 19, 1856 ("See quite a flock of myrtle-birds, — which I might carelessly have mistaken for slate-colored snowbirds, — flitting about on the rocky hillside under Conantum Cliff. They show about three white or light-colored spots when they fly, commonly no bright yellow, though some are pretty bright."); October 21, 1857 ("I see many myrtle-birds now about the house this forenoon, on the advent of cooler weather. They keep flying up against the house and the window and fluttering there, as if they would come in, or alight on the wood-pile or pump. They would commonly be mistaken for sparrows, but show more white when they fly, beside the yellow on the rump and sides of breast seen near to and two white bars on the wings."); October 28, 1853 ("Little sparrow-sized birds flitting about amid the dry corn stalks and the weeds, — one, quite slaty with black streaks and a bright-yellow crown and rump, which I think is the yellow-crowned warbler,")
The muskrats eat a good many clams now. See October 15, 1851 ("The muskrat-houses appear now for the most part to be finished."); October 16, 1859 ("For thirty years I have annually observed, about this time or earlier, the freshly erected winter lodges of the musquash along the riverside"); October 25, 1855 (The muskrats must now prepare for winter in earnest. I see many places where they have left clamshells recently.); October 25, 1857 ("The fresh clamshells opened by the musquash begin to be conspicuous."); November 11, 1855 ("The building of these cabins appears to be coincident with the commencement of their clam diet.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Musquash
I still see the Emys insculpta coupled. See September 15, 1855 ("An Emys insculpta which I mistook for dead, under water near shore; head and legs and tail hanging down straight. Turned it over, and to my surprise found it coupled with another. It was at first difficult to separate them with a paddle."); See also October 21, 1857 ("I saw wood tortoises coupled up the Assabet, the back of the upper above water. It held the lower with its claws about the head, and they were not to be parted."); November 11, 1859 ("I observed, October 23d, wood turtles copulating in the Assabet."); A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau The Wood Turtle (Emys insculpta) and A Year in the Life of a Wood Turtle ("In late November. . .you might expect Wood Turtles in Vermont to be hunkered down in their hibernacula. Instead, I spotted 15 Wood Turtles, most of which were active underwater, including two mating pairs.")
October 14. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, October 14
Yellow-rump warbler
on the window-sill within
a foot of me inside.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The yellow-rump warbler or myrtle-bird
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/hdt551014
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