May 17, 2016
By Sam Barrett's meadow-side I see a female Maryland yellow-throat busily seeking its food amid the dangling fruit of the early aspen, in the top of the tree.
Also a chestnut-sided warbler, - the handsome bird, with a bright-yellow crown and yellow and black striped back and bright-chestnut sides, not shy, busily picking about the expanding leaves of a white birch.
Standing in the meadow near the early aspen at the island, I hear the first fluttering of leaves, - a peculiar sound, at first unaccountable to me.
The breeze causes the now fully expanded aspen leaves to rustle with a pattering sound. It is much like a gentle surge breaking on a shore, or the rippling of waves.
This is the first softer music which the wind draws from the forest.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 17, 1860
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 17, 1860
