The hooting of an owl!

January 30. 

January 30, 2019

How peculiar the hooting of an owl! It is not shrill and sharp like the scream of a hawk, but full, round, and sonorous, waking the echoes of the wood. 

The surface of the snow, especially on hillsides, has a peculiarly combed or worn appearance where water has run in a thaw; i. e., the whole surface shows regular furrows at a distance, as if it had been scraped with an immense comb.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, January 30, 1859


Full, round, and sonorous, waking the echoes of the wood. See  December 19, 1856 (“From out the depths of the wood, it sounds peculiarly hollow and drum-like, as if it struck on a tense skin drawn around, the tympanum of the wood, . . .more than the voice of the owl, the voice of the wood as well.”); December 25, 1858 (“How glad I am to hear him rather than the most eloquent man of the age!”); January 7, 1854 (“It is a sound which the wood or horizon makes.")

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,  January 30

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 ©  2009-2023