A pigeon woodpecker at the hollow poplar

March 30.

6 a. m. — To Island. First still hour since the afternoon of the 17th.

Very severe cold and high winds cold enough to skim the river over in broad places at night, and commencing with the greatest and most destructive gale for many a year,  has never ceased to blow since till this morning. 

The ground these last cold (thirteen) days has been about bare of snow, but frozen.

At the Island I see and hear this morning the cackle of a pigeon woodpecker at the hollow poplar; had heard him tapping distinctly from my boat's place. 

Great flocks of tree sparrows and some F. hyemalis on the ground and trees on the Island Neck, making the air and bushes ring with their jingling.

The river early is partly filled with thin, floating, hardly cemented ice, occasionally turned on its edge by the wind and sparkling in the sun.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 30, 1854

At the Island I see and hear this morning the cackle of a pigeon woodpecker at the hollow poplar; had heard him tapping distinctly from my boat's place. See March 29, 1853 (" On approaching the Island, I am surprised to hear the scolding, cackle-like note of the pigeon woodpecker, a prolonged loud sound somewhat like one note of the robin. This was the tapper, on the old hollow aspen which the small woodpeckers so much frequent. Unless the latter make exactly the same sound with the former, then the pigeon woodpecker has come!! "); April 14, 1856 ("Hear the flicker’s cackle on the old aspen, and his tapping sounds afar over the water. Their tapping resounds thus far, with this peculiar ring and distinctness, because it is a hollow tree they select to play on, as a drum or tambour. It is a hollow sound which rings distinct to a great distance, especially over water.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Pigeon Woodpecker (flicker).

Great flocks of tree sparrows.  See March 28, 1853 ("I saw in Dodd's yard and flying thence to the alders by the river what I think must be the tree sparrow, — a ferruginous crowned, or headed, and partly winged bird, light beneath, with a few of the F. hyemalis in company. It sang sweetly, much like some notes of a canary."); April 1, 1854 ("The birds sing this warm, showery day after a fortnight's cold with a universal burst and flood of melody. The tree sparrows, hyemalis, and song sparrows are particularly lively and musical in the yard this rainy and truly April day. The air rings with them"); April 4, 1853 ("I hear the twitter of tree sparrows from fences and shrubs in the yard and from alders by meadows and the riverside every day"); April 4, 1855 ("A fine morning, still and bright, with smooth water and singing of song and tree sparrows and some blackbirds"); April 8, 1854 ("Methinks I do not see such great and lively flocks of hyemalis and tree sparrows in the morning since the warm days, the 4th, 5th, and 6th. Perchance after the warmer days, which bring out the frogs and butterflies, the alders and maples, the greater part of them leave for the north and give place to newcomers."); April 17, 1855 ("A sudden warm day, like yesterday and this, takes off some birds and adds others. . . . I suspect that most of the tree sparrows and F. hyemalis, at least, went yesterday.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Tree Sparrow; A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Dark-eyed Junco (Fringilla hyemalis)

Ice turned on its edge by the wind and sparkling in the sun. See March 29, 1854 ("Thin cakes of ice at a distance now and then blown up on their edges glistening in the sun."). See also February 12, 1851 ("I see at a distance thin cakes of ice forced upon their edges and reflecting the sun like so many mirrors, whole fleets of shining sails, giving a very lively appearance to the river. ");  March 10, 1859 ("The strong northwest wind of last night broke the thin ice just formed, and set the irregular triangular pieces on their edges quite perpendicular and directed northwest and southeast and pretty close together, about nine inches high, for half a dozen rods, like a dense fleet of schooners with their mainsails set."); March 4, 1860 ("Ice will occasionally be lifted up on its edge two feet high and very conspicuous afar.")

Trees in foggy woods

appearing one at a time

clear my foggy mind.

zphx20140330