March 12
6.30 A. M. — To Andromeda Ponds.
Lesser redpolls still. Elbridge Hayden saw a bluebird yesterday.
P. M. — To Great Meadows.
Comes out pleasant after a raw forenoon with a flurry of snow, already gone.
Two ducks in river, good size, white beneath with black heads, as they go over. They first rise some distance down-stream, and fly by on high, reconnoitering me, and I first see them on wing; then settle a quarter of a mile above by a long slanting flight, at last opposite the swimming-elm below Flint’s.
I come on up the bank with the sun in my face; start them again. Again they fly down-stream by me on high, turn and come round back by me again with outstretched heads, and go up to the Battle-Ground before they alight.
Thus the river is no sooner fairly open than they are back again, — before I have got my boat launched, and long before the river has worn through Fair Haven Pond.
I think I hear a quack or two.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 12, 1855
Two ducks in river, good size, white beneath with black heads, as they go over. See March 12, 1859 ("See two ducks flying over Ministerial Swamp."); March 16, 1855 (“[S]care up two large ducks just above the bridge. . . . I think it the goosander or sheldrake.”); March 17, 1860 ("I see a large flock of sheldrakes, which have probably risen from the pond, flying with great force and rapidity over my head in the woods. Now I hear the whistling of their wings, and in a moment they are lost in the horizon. Like swift propellers of the air.") 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
They are back again, — before I have got my boat launched, and long before the river has worn through Fair Haven Pond. See March 19, 1855 ("Launch my boat..Paddle to Fair Haven Pond."); March 22, 1855 ("I cross Fair Haven Pond, including the river, on the ice, and probably can for three or four days yet."); March 24, 1855 ("I crossed Fair Haven Pond yesterday, and could have crossed the channel there again."); March 26, 1860 (""Fair Haven Pond may be open by the 20th of March, as this year [1860], or not till April 13 as in '56, or twenty-three days later. ); March 31, 1855 ("Looking from the Cliffs I see that Fair Haven Pond will open by day after to-morrow."); April 4, 1855 ("I am surprised to find Fair Haven Pond not yet fully open. There is a large mass of ice in the eastern bay, which will hardly melt to morrow"); April 7, 1856 (""Launched my boat, through three rods of ice on the riverside, half of which froze last night.. . . Surprised to find the river not broken up . . .. and as far as we can see, probably through Fair Haven Pond. . . Yet we make our way with some difficulty, through a very narrow channel over the meadow and drawing our boat over the ice on the river, as far as foot of Fair Haven") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Boat in. Boat out. and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Ice-Out
First open water –
two ducks on river before
I have launched my boat.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Two ducks on open water.
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 © 2009-2025
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