A Book of the Seasons, Signs of the Spring: First silvery sheen from needles of the white pine waving in the wind

No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of the spring. 

Henry Thoreau, March 17, 1857

First silvery sheen

from needles of the white pine
waving in the wind.
February 25, 1860

February 4. Now the white pine are a misty blue; anon a lively, silvery light plays on them, and they seem to erect themselves unusually.  February 4, 1852 

February 5. The boughs, feathery boughs, of the white pines, tier above tier, reflect a silvery light against the darkness of the grove.  February 5, 1852 

February 10.  I see that Wheildon's pines are rocking and showing their silvery under sides as last spring, — their first awakening, as it were. February 10, 1860 

February 23. I have seen signs of the spring. February 23, 1857

February 25. I noticed yesterday the first conspicuous silvery sheen from the needles of the white pine waving in the wind. A small one was conspicuous by the side of the road more than a quarter of a mile ahead. I suspect that those plumes which have been appressed or contracted by snow and ice are not only dried but opened and spread by the wind. February 25, 1860

March 2. I see a row of white pines, too, waving and reflecting their silvery light. March 2, 1860 

March 20. In this spring breeze, how full of life the silvery pines, probably the under sides of their leaves. March 20, 1853

March 21.  That fine silvery light reflected from its needles (perhaps their undersides) incessantly in motion. March 21, 1859

See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, I Have Seen Signs of the Spring:

• A Change in the Air
• A Sunny Nook in Spring
• Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding
• Braided Ripples of Melting Snow Shine in the Ruts
• Bright Blue Water
• Buzzing Flies
• Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow
• First silvery sheen from needles of the white pine waving in the wind
• Frogs, and Turtles Stirring
• Geese Overhead
• Greening Grasses and Sedges
• I begin to think that my wood will last.
• Insects and Worms Come Forth and are Active
• Listening for the Bluebird
• March is famous for its Winds
• Mosses Bright Green
• My Greatcoat on my Arm
• Perla-like Insects Appear
• Red Maple Sap Flows
• Ripples made by Fishes
• Skunks Active
• The Anxious Peep of the Early Robin
• The Crowing of Cocks, the Cawing of crows
• The Days have grown Sensibly Longer
• The Eaves Begin to Run
• The Gobbling of Turkeys
• The Grackle Arrives
• The Hawks of March
• The New Warmth of the Sun
• The Note of the Dark-eyed Junco Going Northward
• The Red-Wing Arrives
• The Skunk Cabbage Blooms
• The Softened Air of these Warm February Days
• The Song Sparrow Sings
• The Spring Note of the Chickadee
• The Spring Note of the Nuthatch
• The Striped Squirrel Comes Out
• The Water Bug (Gyrinus)
• The Woodchuck Ventures Out
• Walking without Gloves
• Woodpeckers Tapping

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Osier in Winter and early Spring
A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, February 25 

 

<<<<< Signs of Spring                           Early Spring >>>>>

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring:

First silvery sheen from needles of the white pine waving in the wind

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 ©  2009-2024

A Book of the Seasons, Signs of the Spring. Geese Overhead

 

No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of the spring. 

Henry Thoreau, March 17, 1857

I spend a considerable portion of my time

observing the habits of the wild animals,

my brute neighbors. By their various movements

and migrations they fetch the year about to me.

Very significant are the flight of geese.

 March 23, 1856

February 18. I hear that geese went over Cambridge last night. February 18, 1857

February 21. Can it be true, as is said, that geese have gone over Boston, probably yesterday? It is in the newspapers. February 21, 1855

February 23. I have seen signs of the spring. February 23, 1857

March 10. The weather is almost April-like. We always have much of this rainy, drizzling, misty weather in early spring, after which we expect to hear geese. March 10, 1854

March 14. From within the house at 5.30 p. m. I hear the loud honking of geese, throw up the window, and see a large flock in disordered harrow flying more directly north or even northwest than usual. Raw, thick, misty weather. March 14, 1854

March 16. Saw a large flock of geese go over Cambridge and heard the robins in the College Yard. March 16, 1852

Walden (Spring) ("As it grew darker, I was startled by the honking of geese flying low over the woods . . . Standing at my door, I could hear the rush of their wings; when … they suddenly … and with hushed clamor wheeled and settled in the pond. So I came in, and shut the door, and passed my first spring night in the woods. In the morning I watched the geese from the door through the mist, sailing in the middle of the pond, fifty rods off . . . But when I stood on the shore they at once rose up with a great flapping of wings at the signal of their commander, and when they had got into rank circled about over my head, twenty-nine of them, and then steered straight to Canada.")

March 24. C. sees geese go over again this afternoon. How commonly they are seen in still rainy weather like this! He says that when they had got far off they looked like a black ribbon almost perpendicular waving in the air. March 24, 1859

March 25. A Lincoln man heard a flock of geese, he thinks it was day before yesterday. March 25, 1853

March 27 Farmer says that he heard geese go over two or three nights ago. March 27, 1857

March 27 Louis Minor tells me he saw some geese about the 23d. March 27 and 28, 1860

March 28 10.15 P. M. — The geese have just gone over, making a great cackling and awaking people in their beds. They will probably settle in the river. Who knows but they had expected to find the pond open? March 28, 1852

March 28 After a cloudy morning, a warm and pleasant afternoon. I hear that a few geese were seen this morning. March 28, 1858

March 28 We see eight geese floating afar in the middle of the meadow, at least half a mile off, plainly (with glass) much larger than the ducks in their neighborhood and the white on their heads very distinct. When at length they arise and fly off northward, their peculiar heavy undulating wings, blue-heron-like and unlike any duck, are very noticeable. . . . When walking about on the low east shore at the Bedford bound, I heard a faint honk, and looked around over the water with my glass, thinking it came from that side or perhaps from a farmyard in that direction. I soon heard it again, and at last we detected a great flock passing over, quite on the other side of us and pretty high up. From time to time one of the company uttered a short note, that peculiarly metallic, clangorous sound. These were in a single undulating line, and, as usual, one or two were from time to time crowded out of the line, apparently by the crowding of those in the rear, and were flying on one side and trying to recover their places, but at last a second short line was formed, meeting the long one at the usual angle and making a figure somewhat like a hay-hook. I suspect it will be found that there is really some advantage in large birds of passage flying in the wedge form and cleaving their way through the air, — that they really do overcome its resistance best in this way, — and perchance the direction and strength of the wind determine the comparative length of the two sides. . . .We see these geese swimming and flying at midday and when it is perfectly fair. If you scan the horizon at this season of the year you are very likely to detect a small flock of dark ducks moving with rapid wing athwart the sky, or see the undulating line of migrating geese against the sky. Perhaps it is this easterly wind which brings geese, as it did on the 24th.

. . .Undoubtedly the geese fly more numerously over rivers which, like ours, flow northeasterly, — are more at home with the water under them. Each flock runs the gantlet of a thousand gunners, and when you see them steer off from you and your boat you may remember how great their experience in such matters may be, how many such boats and gunners they have seen and avoided between here and Mexico, and even now, perchance (though you, low plodding, little dream it), they see one or two more lying in wait ahead. They have an experienced ranger of the air for their guide. The echo of one gun hardly dies away before they see another pointed at them. How many bullets or smaller shot have sped in vain toward their ranks! Ducks fly more irregularly and shorter distances at a time. The geese rest in fair weather by day only in the midst of our broadest meadow or pond. So they go, anxious and earnest to hide their nests under the pole. March 28, 1859

March 30. At dusk I hear two flocks of geese go over. March 30, 1858

March 31. Just after sundown I see a large flock of geese in a perfect harrow cleaving their way toward the northeast, with Napoleonic tactics splitting the forces of winter. March 31, 1858

See also Signs of the Spring:

• A Change in the Air
• A Sunny Nook in Spring
• Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding
• Braided Ripples of Melting Snow Shine in the Ruts
• Bright Blue Water
• Buzzing Flies
• Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow
• Frogs, and Turtles Stirring
• Geese Overhead
• Greening Grasses and Sedges
• I begin to think that my wood will last.
• Insects and Worms Come Forth and are Active
• Listening for the Bluebird
• March is famous for its Winds
• Mosses Bright Green
• My Greatcoat on my Arm
• Perla-like Insects Appear
• Red Maple Sap Flows
• Ripples made by Fishes
• Skunks Active
• The Anxious Peep of the Early Robin
• The Crowing of Cocks, the Cawing of crows
• The Days have grown Sensibly Longer
• The Eaves Begin to Run
• The Gobbling of Turkeys
• The Grackle Arrives
• The Hawks of March
• The New Warmth of the Sun
• The Note of the Dark-eyed Junco Going Northward
• The Red-Wing Arrives
• The Skunk Cabbage Blooms
• The Softened Air of these Warm February Days
• The Song Sparrow Sings
• The Spring Note of the Chickadee
• The Spring Note of the Nuthatch
• The Striped Squirrel Comes Out
• The Water Bug (Gyrinus)
• The Woodchuck Ventures Out
• Walking without Gloves
• Woodpeckers Tapping

 <<<<< Signs of Spring                                                          Early Spring >>>>>

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring;

 Geese Overhead

 

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 ©  2009-2024

<<<<<<<< Geese in Autumn                                        Ice out >>>>>>>>

A Book of the Seasons, Signs of the Spring: The Woodchuck Ventures Out

No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of the spring. 

Henry Thoreau, March 17, 1857

I am on the alert for the first signs of spring, 

to hear the chance note of some arriving bird, 

or the striped squirrel’s chirp . . .

or see the woodchuck venture out of his winter quarters.

  Walden

Man comes out of his

winter quarters this month as

lean as a woodchuck.

March 30, 1855

February 12. In winter not only some creatures, but the very earth is partially dormant; vegetation ceases, and rivers, to some extent, cease to flow. Therefore, when I see the water exposed in midwinter, it is as if I saw a skunk or even a striped squirrel out. It is as if the woodchuck unrolled himself and snuffed the air to see if it were warm enough to be trusted. February 12, 1860

February 23.   I have seen signs of the spring.  February 23, 1857

February 28. Passed a very little boy in the street to-day, who had on a home-made cap of a woodchuck-skin, which his father or elder brother had killed and cured, and his mother or elder sister had fashioned into a nice warm cap. I was interested by the sight of it, it suggested so much of family history, adventure with the chuck, story told about [it], not without exaggeration, the human parents' care of their young these hard times. Johnny was promised many times, and now the work has been completed, — a perfect little idyl, as they say. The cap was large and round, big enough, you would say, for the boy's father, and had some kind of cloth visor stitched to it. The top of the cap was evidently the back of the woodchuck, as it were expanded in breadth, contracted in length, and it was as fresh and handsome as if the woodchuck wore it himself. The great gray-tipped wind hairs were all preserved, and stood out above the brown only a little more loosely than in life. As if he put his head into the belly of a woodchuck, having cut off his tail and legs and substituted a visor for the head. The little fellow wore it innocently enough, not knowing what he had on, forsooth, going about his small business pit-a-pat; and his black eyes sparkled beneath it when I remarked on its warmth , even as the woodchuck's might have done. Such should be the history of every piece of clothing that we wear. February 28, 1860

March 5. See the tracks of a woodchuck in the sand-heap about the mouth of his hole, where he has cleared out his entry. March 5, 1857

March 11. See and talk with Rice . . . He combines several qualities and talents rarely combined. Though he owns houses in the city, whose repair he attends to, finds tenants for them, and collects the rent, he also has his Sudbury farm and bean-fiolds. Though he lived in a city, he would still be natural and related to primitive nature around him. Though he owned all Beacon Street, you might find that his mittens were made of the skin of a woodchuck that had ravaged his bean-field, which he had cured. I noticed a woodchuck’s skin tacked up to the inside of his shop. He said it had fatted on his beans, and William had killed and expected to get another to make a pair of mittens of, one not being quite large enough. It was excellent for mittens. You could hardly wear it out. March 11, 185

March 11. I see a woodchuck out on the calm side of Lee's Hill (Nawshawtuct). March 11, 1860

March 13.  I look into many woodchucks’ holes, but as yet they are choked with leaves and there is no sign of their having come abroad. March 13, 1855

March 14. Repairing my boat. High winds, growing colder and colder, ground stiffening again. My ears have not been colder the past winter. Lowell Fay tells me that he overtook with a boat and killed last July a woodchuck which was crossing the river at Hollowell Place . . . March is rightly famous for its winds. March 14, 1853

March 15. I see to-day in two places, in mud and in snow, what I have no doubt is the track of the woodchuck that has lately been out, with peculiarly spread toes like a little hand. March 15, 1860

March 16. Cloudy in the forenoon. Sun comes out and it is rather pleasant in the afternoon. P. M. — To Conantum End. At the woodchuck’s hole just beyond the cockspur thorn, I see several diverging and converging trails of undoubtedly a woodchuck, or several, which must have come out at least as early as the 13th. The track is about one and three quarters inches wide by two long, the five toes very distinct and much spread, and is somewhat hand-like. They had come out and run about directly from hole to hole, six in all, within a dozen rods or more. This appeared to have been all their travelling, as if they had run round a-visiting and waked each other up the first thing. None have travelled beyond these holes, except that one track leads into the swamp. But here are the tracks of foxes bound on longer journeys. March 16, 1855

March 22. The phenomena of an average March . . . Skunks are active and frolic; woodchucks and ground squirrels come forth. March 22, 1860

March 25. To speak of the general phenomena of March: When March arrives, a tolerably calm, clear, sunny, spring like day, the snow is so far gone that . . . The boy's sled gets put away in the barn or shed or garret, and there lies dormant all summer, like a wood chuck in the winter. It goes into its burrow just before woodchucks come out, so that you may say a wood chuck never sees a sled, nor a sled a woodchuck, — unless it were a prematurely risen woodchuck or a belated and unseasonable sled . Before the woodchuck comes out the sled goes in . They dwell at the antipodes of each other. Before sleds rise woodchucks have set. The ground squirrel too shares the privileges and misfortunes of the woodchuck. The sun now passes from the constellation of the sled into that of the woodchuck. March 25, 1860

March 29. Looking at the mouth of a woodchuck-hole and at low places, as on the moss, in the meadows, [I see] that those places are sprinkled with little pellets or sometimes salt-shaped masses of frost some inches apart, apparently like snow. This is one kind of frost . . . Dugan tells me . . . he saw a woodchuck yesterday. March 29, 1853

See also Signs of the Spring:

• A Change in the Air
• A Sunny Nook in Spring
• Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding
• Braided Ripples of Melting Snow Shine in the Ruts
• Bright Blue Water
• Buzzing Flies
• Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow
• Frogs, and Turtles Stirring
• Greening Grasses and Sedges
• I begin to think that my wood will last.
• Insects and Worms Come Forth and are Active
• Listening for the Bluebird
• March is famous for its Winds
• Mosses Bright Green
• My Greatcoat on my Arm
• Perla-like Insects Appear
• Red Maple Sap Flows
• Ripples made by Fishes
• Skunks Active
• The Anxious Peep of the Early Robin
• The Crowing of Cocks, the Cawing of crows
• The Days have grown Sensibly Longer
• The Eaves Begin to Run
• The Gobbling of Turkeys
• The Grackle Arrives
• The Hawks of March
• The New Warmth of the Sun
• The Note of the Dark-eyed Junco Going Northward
• The Red-Wing Arrives
• The Skunk Cabbage Blooms
• The Softened Air of these Warm February Days
• The Song Sparrow Sings
• The Spring Note of the Chickadee
• The Spring Note of the Nuthatch
• The Striped Squirrel Comes Out
• The Water Bug (Gyrinus)
• The Woodchuck Ventures Out
• Walking without Gloves
• Woodpeckers Tapping

 <<<<< Signs of Spring                                                          Early Spring >>>>>

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring;

The Woodchuck Ventures Out

 

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 ©  2009-2024

A Book of the Seasons, Signs of the Spring: Skunks Active

No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of the spring. 

Henry Thoreau, March 17, 1857

For the first time I perceive this spring that the year is a circle.

Why should just these sights and sounds accompany our life?

Why should I hear the chattering of black-birds,

why smell the skunk each year?

 April 18, 1852

They appear to come out commonly

in the warmer weather

in the latter part of February.

February 25, 1860

January 24.  The droppings of a skunk left on a rock, perhaps at the beginning of winter, were full of grasshoppers' legs. January 24, 1860

February 23. I have seen signs of the spring. February 23, 1857

February 24. The other day I thought that I smelled a fox very strongly, and went a little further and found that it was a skunk. May not their odors differ in intensity chiefly?  February 24, 1854

February 24.  I have seen the probings of skunks for a week or more. I now see where one has pawed out the worm-dust or other chankings from a hole in base of a walnut and torn open the fungi, etc., there, exploring for grubs or insects. They are very busy these nights. February 24, 1857

February 25. For a day or two past I have seen in various places the small tracks apparently of skunks.  They appear to come out commonly in the warmer weather in the latter part of February.  February 25, 1860

March 6. To Goose Pond. I see the skunk-cabbage started about the spring at head of Hubbard's Close, amid the green grass, and what looks like the first probing of the skunk. March 6, 1854

March 10.  See a skunk in the Corner road, which I follow sixty rods or more. Out now about 4 p. m., — partly because it is a dark, foul day. It is a slender black (and white) animal, with its back remarkably arched, standing high behind and carrying its head low; runs, even when undisturbed, with singular teeter or undulation, like the walking of a Chinese lady. Very slow; I hardly have to run to keep up with it.  It has a long tail, which it regularly erects when I come too near and prepares to discharge its liquid. It is white at the end of the tail, and the hind head and a line on the front of the face, — the rest black, except the flesh-colored nose (and I think feet).  It tries repeatedly to get into the wall, and does not show much cunning. Finally it steers apparently, for an old skunk or wood-chuck hole under a wall four rods off, and gets into it, — or under the wall, at least, — for it is stopped up, — and there I view at leisure close to.  It has a remarkably long, narrow, pointed head and snout, which enable it to make those deep narrow holes in the earth by which it probes for insects. 

Its eyes have an innocent, childlike, bluish-black expression. 

It makes a singular loud patting sound repeatedly, on the frozen ground under the wall, undoubtedly with its fore feet (I saw only the upper part of the animal), which reminds me of what I have heard about your stopping and stamping in order to stop the skunk. Probably it has to do with its getting its food, — patting the earth to get the insects or worms. Though why it does so now I know not. Its track is small, round, showing the nails, a little less than an inch in diameter, alternate five or six inches by two or two and a half, sometimes two feet together. There is something pathetic in such a sight, — next to seeing one of the human aborigines of the country. 

I respect the skunk 

as a human being in a 

very humble sphere. 

I have no doubt they have begun to probe already where the ground permits, — or as far as it does. But what have they eat all winter? March 10, 1854

March 14.  I think I have seen many more tracks of skunks within two or three weeks than all the winter before; as if they were partially dormant here in the winter, and came out very early, i. e., perhaps some of them are more or less dormant. March 14, 1858

March 22. The phenomena of an average March . . . Skunks are active and frolic; woodchucks and ground squirrels come forth. March 22, 1860

March 28. I see where a skunk (apparently) has been probing the sod, though it is thawed but a few inches, and all around this spot frozen hard still. I dig up there a frozen and dead white grub, the large potato grub; this I think he was after. The skunk’s nose has made small round holes such as a stick or cane would make.  March 28, 1855

March 30.  Not till late could the skunk find a place where the ground was thawed on the surface. March 30, 1855

See also Signs of the Spring:

• A Change in the Air
• A Sunny Nook in Spring
• Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding
• Braided Ripples of Melting Snow Shine in the Ruts
• Bright Blue Water
• Buzzing Flies
• Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow
• Frogs, and Turtles Stirring
• Greening Grasses and Sedges
• I begin to think that my wood will last.
• Insects and Worms Come Forth and are Active
• Listening for the Bluebird
• March is famous for its Winds
• Mosses Bright Green
• My Greatcoat on my Arm
• Perla-like Insects Appear
• Red Maple Sap Flows
• Ripples made by Fishes
• Skunks Active
• The Anxious Peep of the Early Robin
• The Crowing of Cocks, the Cawing of crows
• The Days have grown Sensibly Longer
• The Eaves Begin to Run
• The Gobbling of Turkeys
• The Grackle Arrives
• The Hawks of March
• The New Warmth of the Sun
• The Note of the Dark-eyed Junco Going Northward
• The Red-Wing Arrives
• The Skunk Cabbage Blooms
• The Softened Air of these Warm February Days
• The Song Sparrow Sings
• The Spring Note of the Chickadee
• The Spring Note of the Nuthatch
• The Striped Squirrel Comes Out
• The Water Bug (Gyrinus)
• The Woodchuck Ventures Out
• Walking without Gloves
• Woodpeckers Tapping

  <<<<< Signs of Spring                                                          Early Spring >>>>>

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring;

 Skunks Active

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 ©  2009-2024

See Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, Striped Skunk: The skunk forages at night aggressively searching out food guided by its strong sense of smell.  It  is an omnivore and  opportunist by nature, depending on the season and food availability, spending  much of its time digging for insects and burrowing animals. Striped skunks are considered  both crepuscular and nocturnal. They are not true hibernators but will den up and become inactive during long stretches of cold weather. Breeding occurs from February through late March. The young are born in late April to early June and leave the mother in the fall or the following spring to breed and raise a family of their own.

A Book of the Seasons, Signs of the Spring: My Greatcoat on my Arm

No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of the spring. 

Henry Thoreau, March 17, 1857

The phenomena of an average March are increasing warmth, 

melting the snow and ice and. . . some calm and pleasant days reminding us of summer, with a blue haze or a thicker mist wreathing the woods at last, in which, perchance, we take off our coats awhile and sit without a fire a day.

 March 22, 1860

February 7. It is so warm that I am obliged to take off my greatcoat and carry it on my arm. February 7, 1857

February 16.  The sun is most pleasantly warm on my cheek; the melting snow shines in the ruts; the cocks crow more than usual in barns; my greatcoat is an incumbrance. February 16, 1856

February 23. I have seen signs of the spring. February 23, 1857

February 24.. I walk without a greatcoat. A chickadee with its winter lisp flits over, and I think it is time to hear its phoebe note,and that instant it pipes it forth. February 24, 1857

February 25. The flies buzz out of doors. Though I left my outside coat at home, this single thick one is too much. February 25, 1857

March 10. This is the first really spring day. The sun is brightly reflected from all surfaces, and the north side of the street begins to be a little more passable to foot-travelers. You do not think it necessary to button up your coat. Something analogous to the thawing of the ice seems to have taken place in the air. At the end of winter there is a season in which are are daily expecting spring, and finally a day when it arrives. March 10, 1853

March 15. This afternoon I throw off my outside coat. A mild spring day. The air is full of bluebirds. . . . My life partakes of infinity. March 15, 1852

March 17. . A remarkably warm day for the season; too warm while surveying without my great coat; almost like May heats. March 17, 1854

March 17.  It is very warm. I wear but one coat on the water. March 17, 1859

March 20. At first a sunny, calm, serene winter day is pronounced spring, or reminds us of it; and then the first pleasant spring day perhaps we walk with our greatcoat buttoned up and gloves on. March 20, 1855

March 30.  A very warm and pleasant day (at 2 P.M., 63° and rising). The afternoon so warm -- wind southwest -- you take off coat. . . .It is time to begin to leave your greatcoat at home, to put on shoes instead of boots and feel lightfooted. March 30, 1860

March 31. The fuzzy gnats are in the air, and bluebirds, whose warble is thawed out. I am uncomfortably warm, gradually unbutton both my coats, and wish that I had left the outside one at home. March 31, 1855

March 31. A yet warmer day. A very thick haze, concealing mountains and all distant objects like a smoke, with a strong but warm southwest wind. Your outside coat is soon left on the ground in the woods, where it first becomes quite intolerable. March 31, 1860

See also Signs of the Spring:

• A Change in the Air
• A Sunny Nook in Spring
• Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding
• Braided Ripples of Melting Snow Shine in the Ruts
• Bright Blue Water
• Buzzing Flies
• Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow
• Frogs, and Turtles Stirring
• Greening Grasses and Sedges
• I begin to think that my wood will last.
• Insects and Worms Come Forth and are Active
• Listening for the Bluebird
• March is famous for its Winds
• Mosses Bright Green
• My Greatcoat on my Arm
• Perla-like Insects Appear
• Red Maple Sap Flows
• Ripples made by Fishes
• The Anxious Peep of the Early Robin
• The Crowing of Cocks, the Cawing of crows
• The Days have grown Sensibly Longer
• The Eaves Begin to Run
• The Gobbling of Turkeys
• The Grackle Arrives
• The Hawks of March
• The New Warmth of the Sun
• The Note of the Dark-eyed Junco Going Northward
• The Red-Wing Arrives
• The Skunk Cabbage Blooms
• The Softened Air of these Warm February Days
• The Song Sparrow Sings
• The Spring Note of the Chickadee
• The Spring Note of the Nuthatch
• The Striped Squirrel Comes Out
• The Water Bug (Gyrinus)
• Walking without Gloves
• Woodpeckers Tapping

  <<<<< Signs of Spring                                                             Early Spring >>>>>

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring; 

My Greatcoat on my Arm

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 ©  2009-2024