Birding up the Assabet.

July 28.

Saw young martins being fed on a bridge-rail yesterday. 

Young purple finches eating mountain-ash berries (ours). 

The kingbirds eat currants. 

I notice that the common greenish rock lichen (Parmelia) grows on the rocks of the Assabet down to within two feet of summer level; i. e., it is submerged perhaps one fourth part of the year. 

The black willows are the children of the river. They do not grow far from the water, not on the steep banks which the river is wearing into, not on the unconverted shore, but on the bars and banks which the river has made. A bank may soon get to be too high for it. It grows and thrives on the river-made shores and banks, and is a servant which the river uses to build up and defend its banks and isles. It is married to the river.

Where an eddy is depositing a sand-bar, anon to be elevated into an island or bank, there especially the black willow flourishes.

Hear part of the song of what sounds and looks like a rose-breasted grosbeak.

The sweet and plaintive note of the pewee (wood pewee) is now prominent, since most other birds are more hushed. I hear young families of them answering each other from a considerable distance, especially about the river.

The season has now arrived when I begin to see further into the water, -- see the bottom, the weeds, and fishes more than before. I can see the bottom when it is five and a half feet deep even, see the fishes scuttling in and out amid the weeds.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 28, 1859

The season has now arrived when I begin to see further into the water . . . See July 27, 1860 ("The water has begun to be clear and sunny, revealing the fishes and countless minnows of all sizes and colors”); July 30, 1856 ("The wonderful clearness of the water, enabling you to explore the river bottom and many of its secrets now...”).

The sweet and plaintive note of the pewee is now prominent . . . See August 9, 1856 (“The notes of the wood pewee and warbling vireo are more prominent of late, and of the goldfinch twittering over.”)

Desire is the song

 of love, love the song of life,

life the song of you.

With you my love sings. 

My desire is alive to

the extremities.

April 20, 2019