Thursday, October 6, 2016

The jay's shrill note is more distinct of late.

October 6.  

I notice the effects of some frost this morning in garden. Some pumpkin vines drooping and black. 

P. M. — Carried Sophia and Aunt up the Assabet. 

The reflections of the bright-tinted maples very perfect. 

The common notes of the chickadee, so rarely heard for a long time, and also one phebe strain from it, amid the Leaning Hemlocks, remind me of pleasant winter days, when they are more commonly seen. [This again the 8th. It is an anticipation of spring.]

The jay's shrill note is more distinct of late about the edges of the woods, when so many birds have left us. 

We are suddenly driven home by a slight thunder-shower!















H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 6, 1856

Carried Sophia and Aunt up the Assabet.  See October 18, 1853 ("With Sophia boat to Fair Haven, where she makes a sketch.") September 25, 1855 ("Carry Aunt and Sophia a-barberrying to Conantum "); November 14, 1855 ("Up Assabet with Sophia. A clear, bright, warm afternoon.”)

The jay's shrill note is more distinct of late about the edges of the woods., when so many birds have left us. See September 12, 1858 (“Amid the October woods we hear no funereal bell, but the scream of the jay. ”); September 21, 1859  ("Jays are more frequently heard of late, maybe because other birds are more silent.”);   September 25, 1851 (" In these cooler, windier, crystal days the note of the jay sounds a little more native.”);  October 5, 1857 (“ There are few flowers, birds, insects, or fruits now, and hence what does occur affects us as more simple and significant. The cawing of a crow, the scream of a jay. The latter seems to scream more fitly and with more freedom now that some fallen maple leaves have made way for his voice. The jay's voice resounds through the vacancies occasioned by fallen maple leaves.”); October 14, 1852  (Jays and chickadees are oftener heard in the fall than in summer.”); October 20, 1856  (“Thus, of late, when the season is declining, many birds have departed, and our thoughts are turned towards winter . . .we hear the jay again more frequently, and the chickadees are more numerous and lively and familiar and utter their phebe note”)

Suddenly driven home by a slight thunder-shower! See October 26, 1860 ("Overtaken by a sudden thunder-shower.")

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