A bird of many colors.

April 28.

A second cold but fair day. Good fires are required to-day and yesterday. 

P. M. —Sail to Ball’s Hill. 

The chimney swallow, with the white-bellied and barn swallows, over the river. 

The red maples, now in bloom, are quite handsome at a distance over the flooded meadow beyond Peter’s. The abundant wholesome gray of the trunks and stems beneath surmounted by the red or scarlet crescents. 

Are not they sheldrakes which I see at a distance on an islet in the meadow? 

The wind is strong from the northwest. Land at Ball’s Hill to look for birds under the shelter of the hill in the sun. 

There are a great many myrtle-birds here, — they have been quite common for a week, — also yellow redpolls, and some song sparrows, tree sparrows, field sparrows, and one F. hyemalis. 

In a cold and windy day like this you can find more birds than in a serene one, because they are collected under the wooded hillsides in the sun. 

The myrtle-birds flit before us in great numbers, yet quite tame, uttering commonly only a chip, but some times a short trill or che che, che che, che che. Do I hear the tull-lull in the afternoon? It is a bird of many colors, — slate, yellow, black, and white, — singularly spotted. 

April 28, 2015

Those little gnats of the 21st are still in the air in the sun under this hill, but elsewhere the cold strong wind has either drowned them or chilled them to death. I see where they have taken refuge in a boat and covered its bottom with large black patches. 

I noticed on the 26th (and also to-day) that since this last rise of the river, which reached its height the 23d, a great deal of the young flag, already six inches to a foot long, though I have hardly observed it growing yet, has washed up all along the shore, and as to-day I find a piece of flag-root with it gnawed by a muskrat, I think that they have been feeding very extensively on the white and tender part of the young blades. 

They, and not ducks, for it is about the bridges also as much as anywhere. I think that they desert the clams now for this vegetable food. In one place a dead muskrat scents the shore, probably another of those drowned out in the winter. 

See the little heaps of dirt where worms had come out by river.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 28, 1855

The chimney swallow, with the white-bellied and barn swallows, over the river. See April 28, 1858 ("The barn swallows and a martin are already skimming low over that small area of smooth water within a few feet of me, never leaving that spot,"); See also April 8, 1856 ("The white bellied swallows have paid us twittering visits the last three mornings. You must rush out quickly to see them,"); April 15, 1855 ("Many martins (with white—bellied swallows) are skimming and twittering above the water,"); April 15, 1856 ("The white-bellied swallows are circling about and twittering above the apple trees and walnuts on the hillside."); April 15, 1859 ("I see and hear white-bellied swallows as they are zigzagging through the air with their loud and lively notes"); April 18, 1855 ("White-bellied swallows and martins twitter now at 9 A. M.");  April 29, 1854 ("The barn swallows are very numerous, flying low over the water in the rain.”); April 29, 1856 ("Barn swallows and chimney, with white-bellied swallows, are flying together over the river.");April 30, 1856  ("Great number of swallows—white-bellied and barn swallows and perhaps republican — flying round and round, or skimming very low over the meadow, just laid bare, only a foot above the ground.")  See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The White-bellied Swallow

The red maples, now in bloom, are quite handsome at a distance. See April 29, 1856 ("How pretty a red maple in bloom (they are now in prime), seen in the sun against a pine wood . . . they are of so cheerful and lively a color.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Red Maple

There are a great many myrtle-birds here, — they have been quite common for a week. The myrtle-birds flit before us in great numbers, yet quite tame, uttering commonly only a chip, but some times a short trill or che che, che che, che che. See  April 28, 1858 (“I see the myrtle-bird in the same sunny place, south of the Island woods, as formerly.”); April 28, 1859 (“The first myrtle-bird that I have noticed”); See also  April 26, 1854 ("The woods are full of myrtle-birds this afternoon, more common and commonly heard than any, especially along the edge of woods on oaks, etc., — their note an oft-repeated fine jingle, a tea le, tea le, tea le.");  May 1, 1855 ("The myrtle-bird is one of the commonest and tamest birds now. It catches insects like a pewee, darting off from its perch and returning to it, and sings something like a-chill chill, chill chill, chill chill, a-twear, twill twill twee,"); May 4, 1855 ("Myrtle-birds numerous, and sing their tea lee, tea lee in morning")

To-day I find a piece of flag-root with it gnawed by a muskrat . . .In one place a dead muskrat scents the shore, probably another of those drowned out in the winter. See April 10, 1855 ("Another dead muskrat, equally old with the two others I have seen this spring,—as if they had died at the time of the great freshet in February. . . .I see much yellow lily root afloat, which the muskrats have dug up and nibbled."); April 25, 1855 (" I have noticed three or four upper jaws of muskrats on the meadow lately, which, added to the dead bodies floating, make more than half a dozen perhaps drowned out last winter. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Musquash

The myrtle-birds flit

before us in great numbers –

sheltered from the wind.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, A bird of many colors.

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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