Another fine morning.
Willows and alders along watercourses all alive these mornings and ringing with the trills and jingles and warbles of birds, even as the waters have lately broken loose and tinkle below.
The song sparrows are very abundant, peopling each bush, willow, or alder for a quarter of a mile, and pursuing each other as if now selecting their mates. It is their song which especially fills the air. made an incessant and undistinguishable trill and jingle by their numbers.
I see ducks afar, sailing on the meadow, leaving a long furrow in the water behind them. Watch them at leisure without scaring them, with my glass; observe their free and undisturbed motions. Some dark brown partly on water, alternately dipping with their tails up partly on land. These I think may be summer ducks.
Others with bright white breasts, etc., and black heads about same size or larger, which may be golden-eyes, i.e. brass-eyed whistlers. [Probably both sheldrakes. Vide April 6 and 7, 1855.]
They dive and are gone some time, and come up a rod off. At first I saw but one, then, a minute after, three.
The first phoebe near the water is heard.
See and hear honey-bees about my boat in the yard, attracted probably by the beeswax in the grafting-wax which was put on it a year ago.
It is warm weather. A thunder-storm in the evening.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 16, 1854
I see ducks afar. . . bright white breasts, etc., and black heads about same size or larger . . .Probably both sheldrakes. See March 16, 1855 ("Scare up two large ducks . . .. One very large; white beneath, breast and neck; black head and wings and aft. . . . I view them with glass. The larger sails about on the watch, while the smaller, dark one dives repeatedly. I think it the goosander or sheldrake."); March 16, 1820 ("Saw a flock of sheldrakes a hundred rods off, on the Great Meadows, mostly males with a few females, all intent on fishing.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring, Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Sheldrake (Goosander, Merganser)
The first phoebe near the water is heard. See April 6, 1856 ("Just beyond Wood’s Bridge, I hear the pewee. With what confidence after the lapse of many months, I come out to this waterside, some warm and pleasant spring morning, and, listening, hear, from farther or nearer, through the still concave of the air, the note of the first pewee! If there is one within half a mile, it will be here, and I shall be sure to hear its simple notes from those trees, borne over the water.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Eastern Phoebe
I see ducks afar, sailing on the meadow, leaving a long furrow in the water behind them. Watch them at leisure without scaring them, with my glass; observe their free and undisturbed motions. Some dark brown partly on water, alternately dipping with their tails up partly on land. These I think may be summer ducks.
Others with bright white breasts, etc., and black heads about same size or larger, which may be golden-eyes, i.e. brass-eyed whistlers. [Probably both sheldrakes. Vide April 6 and 7, 1855.]
They dive and are gone some time, and come up a rod off. At first I saw but one, then, a minute after, three.
The first phoebe near the water is heard.
See and hear honey-bees about my boat in the yard, attracted probably by the beeswax in the grafting-wax which was put on it a year ago.
It is warm weather. A thunder-storm in the evening.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 16, 1854
I see ducks afar. . . bright white breasts, etc., and black heads about same size or larger . . .Probably both sheldrakes. See March 16, 1855 ("Scare up two large ducks . . .. One very large; white beneath, breast and neck; black head and wings and aft. . . . I view them with glass. The larger sails about on the watch, while the smaller, dark one dives repeatedly. I think it the goosander or sheldrake."); March 16, 1820 ("Saw a flock of sheldrakes a hundred rods off, on the Great Meadows, mostly males with a few females, all intent on fishing.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring, Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Sheldrake (Goosander, Merganser)
The first phoebe near the water is heard. See April 6, 1856 ("Just beyond Wood’s Bridge, I hear the pewee. With what confidence after the lapse of many months, I come out to this waterside, some warm and pleasant spring morning, and, listening, hear, from farther or nearer, through the still concave of the air, the note of the first pewee! If there is one within half a mile, it will be here, and I shall be sure to hear its simple notes from those trees, borne over the water.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Eastern Phoebe
See and hear honey-bees about my boat in the yard, See May 7, 1853 ("The willows (Salix alba) where I keep my boat resound with the hum of bees and other insects.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Bees
A thunder-storm in the evening. See February 15, 1861 ("A little thunder and lightning late in the afternoon. I see two flashes and hear two claps."); February 23, 1860 ("About 4 P. M. a smart shower, ushered in by thunder and succeeded by a brilliant rainbow "); March 8, 1854 ("Lightning this evening, after a day of successive rains.")
March 16. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, March 16
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, A thunder-storm in the evening.
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
https://tinyurl.com/hdt-540316
March 16, 2022
I have a never-been-here-before moment at dusk snowshoeing off the lower trail --bushwacking, trying to stay off her track, headed for connector trail, looking for an open route through the trees--when a clear pristine path opens before me; i wonder why i never noticed it before and selfishly think to keep it secret an easy short cut between the trails. i see tangle of trees blocking the way to the "corner" and wonder why i have never see it before. The open path is as if it is an old logging road. Wait it is the logging road. i have reached the trail sooner than i thought. My mental coordinates all snap around thirty degrees. i am reoriented. i have my bearings. zphx 20140316
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