A Book of the Seasons: March 4.

March 4. 

Now I take that walk

along the river highway
level wide and smooth.
March 4, 1852

And for the first time

I see the water looking

blue on the meadows.

March 4, 1854

A cold and strong wind
yet very warm in the sun
sheltered on these rocks.
March 4, 1855 

A cold and strong wind yet very warm in the sun – a fly on this rock. March 4, 1855

The striped squirrel spring:

We listen for the bluebird

but we hear him not.

March 4, 1855

A hawk rises and

sails away over the Wood

as in the summer.

March 4, 1860

March 4, 2018

*****

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Aspens.

 See March 30, 1852 (" From the Cliffs I see that Fair Haven Pond is open over the channel of the river, - which is in fact thus only revealed, of the same width as elsewhere, running from the end of Baker's Wood to the point of the Island. The slight current there has worn away the ice. I never knew before exactly where the channel was.") See also February 28, 1857 ("Nearly one third the channel is open in Fair Haven Pond. ");. 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 29, 1854 ("Fair Haven half open; channel wholly open. Thin cakes of ice at a distance now and then blown up on their edges glistening in the sun.").


I saw half a dozen crows on a cake of ice in the middle of the Great Meadows yesterday, evidently looking for some favorite food which is washed on to it, - snails, or cranberries perhaps. See March 22, 1854 ("See crows along the water's edge. What do they eat?"): March 22, 1855 (" I have noticed crows in the meadows ever since they were first partially bare, three weeks ago ");  March 22, 1856("Many tracks of crows in snow along the edge of the open water against Merrick’s at Island. They thus visit the edge of water—this and brooks —before any ground is exposed. Is it for small shellfish?"); March 20, 1856 ("Perhaps these [Paludina decisa] make part of the food of the crows which visit this brook and whose tracks I now see on the edge, and have all winter. Probably they also pick up some dead frogs"); March 5, 1859 (" I see crows walking about on the ice half covered with snow in the middle of the meadows, where there is no grass, apparently to pick up the worms and other insects left there since the midwinter freshet .")


A hen-hawk rises and sails away over the Holden Wood as in summer. Saw and heard one scream the 2d. See March 15, 1856 ("Hear two hawks scream. There is something truly March-like in it, like a prolonged blast or whistling of the wind"); March 15, 1860 ("A hen-hawk sails away from the wood southward. 

These hawks, as usual, began to be common about the first of March, showing that they were returning from their winter quarters.").

 Aspen down a quarter of an inch out. See February 6, 1856 (" The down is just peeping out from some of the aspen buds"); February 27. 1852 ("The buds of the aspen show a part of their down or silky catkins.")

  February 18, 1855 ("I listen ever for something springlike in the notes of birds, some peculiar tinkling notes."); February 18, 1857 ("The snow is nearly all gone, and it is so warm and springlike that I walk over to the hill, listening for spring birds.");  March 1, 1855 ( "We go listening for bluebirds, but only hear crows and chickadees."); December 11, 1854 ("I hear rarely a bird except the chickadee, or perchance a jay or crow.”)

March 15. 1857 ("As usual at this date and earlier, there are a few square rods of green grass tufts at Brister’s springs, like a green fire under the pines and alders, and in one place an apparent growth of golden saxifrage"); March 18, 1853 ("At Conantum Cliff the columbines have started and the saxifrage even,. . .These plants waste not a day, not a moment, suitable to their development.")
.
I find near Hosmer Spring in the wettest ground, which has melted the snow as it fell, little flat beds of light-green moss, soft as velvet, which have recently pushed up. See  February 18, 1852 ("The mosses on the rocks look green where the snow has melted. This must be one of the spring signs, when spring comes.");  March 3, 1859 ("The mossy bank along the south side of Hosmer's second spring ditch is very interesting. There are many coarse, hair-like masses of that green and brown moss on its edge, hanging over the ditch, alternating with withered-looking cream-colored sphagnum tinged with rose-color, in protuberances, or mammae, a foot across on the perpendicular side of the ditch");  March 7 , 1855 ("At Brister’s Spring there are beautiful dense green beds of moss, which apparently has just risen above the surface of the water, tender and compact.");  April 2, 1853 (" See the fine moss in the pastures with beautiful red stems even crimsoning the ground. This is its season."); April 2, 1856 (" There are beds of fresh green moss in the midst of the shallow water."):; April 18, 1856 ("That pretty, now brown-stemmed moss with green oval fruit");  April 25, 1857 ("The dense, green, rounded beds of mosses in springs and old water-troughs are very handsome now, — intensely cold green cushions.")

See February 22, 1855 ("Remarkably warm and pleasant weather, perfect spring. I even listen for the first bluebird.”); March 1, 1855 ("We go listening for bluebirds, but only hear crows and chickadees.”) March 2, 1855 (" I go listening, but in vain, for the warble of a bluebird from the old orchard across the river. “); March 11, 1855 ("A bluebird day before yesterday in Stow.”); March 12, 1855 ("Elbridge Hayden saw a bluebird yesterday."); March 19, 1855 ("And when I reach my landing I hear my first bluebird, somewhere about Cheney’s trees by the river. I hear him out of the blue deeps, but do not yet see his blue body. He comes with a warble.”)

 March 10, 1855 ("Those reddening leaves, as the checkerberry, lambkill, etc., etc., which at the beginning of winter were greenish, are now a deeper red, when the snow goes off.”) Also note to May 21, 1857 (“I find checkerberries still fresh and abundant. ”)

February 18, 1857 (“I was surprised to find how sweet the whole ground smelled when I lay flat and applied my nose to it”); March 18,1853 ("To-day first I smelled the earth.”); April 2, 1856 ("I am tempted to stretch myself on the bare ground above the Cliff, to feel its warmth in my back, and smell the earth and the dry leaves.”);  May 4, 1859 ("I draw near to the land; I begin to lie down and stretch myself on it. After my winter voyage I begin to smell the land.”); May 16, 1852 ("The whole earth is fragrant as a bouquet held to your nose.”)

See  March 6, 1858 ("I see the first hen-hawk, or hawk of any kind, methinks, since the beginning of winter, Its scream, even, is inspiring as the voice of a spring bird");. March 8, 1857 ("Get a glimpse of a hawk, the first of the season"); March 15, 1856 ("Hear two hawks scream. There is something truly March-like in it, like a prolonged blast or whistling of the wind"); March 15, 1860 ("A hen-hawk sails away from the wood southward. These hawks, as usual, began to be common about the first of March, showing that they were returning from their winter quarters."). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The hen-hawk

 See February 6, 1856 ("The down is just peeping out from some of the aspen buds"); February 27. 1852("The buds of the aspen show a part of their down or silky catkins."); March 6, 1853 ("Last Sunday I plucked some alder twigs, some aspen, and some swamp willow, and put them in water in a warm room. In about four days the aspens began to show their red anthers and feathery scales, being an inch in length and still extending.") See also