A Book of the Seasons: March 6.

March 6.

The snow is still deep
in deciduous woods and
the north side of hills.
March 6, 1854

The snow is all off 
in thick evergreen woods and 
the south side of hills. 
March 6, 1854

Drying of the earth
goes on in the cold night as
well as the warm day.
March 6, 1854

Scream of the first hawk 

as inspiring as the 

voice of a spring bird. 

March 6, 1858

Slender black birches
with gracefully catkined twigs
drooping on all sides.
March 6, 1859

3 P. M. 44º. Fair and springlike, i.e. rather still for March, with some raw wind. Pleasant in sun. March 6, 1860

The bare water here and there on the meadow begins to look smooth, and I look to see it rippled by a muskrat. March 6, 1854


Mr. Stacy tells me that the flies buzzed about him as he was splitting wood in his yard to-day. March 6, 1860

Jonas Melvin says he saw hundreds of “speckled” turtles out on the banks to-day in a voyage to Billerica for musquash. March 6, 1860

 I see the skunk-cabbage started about the spring at head of Hubbard's Close, amid the green grass, and what looks like the first probing of the skunk. March 6, 1854

We go through the swamp near Bee-Tree, or Oak, Ridge, listening for blackbirds or robins and, in the old orchards, for bluebirds. March 6, 1859

Hear and see the first blackbird, flying east over the Deep Cut, with a tchuck, tchuck, and finally a split whistle. March 6, 1854


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 6, 1858


The slender black birches, with their catkined twigs gracefully drooping on all sides, are very pretty. March 6, 1859

Like the alders, with their reddish catkins, they express more life than most trees. March 6, 1859


The hemlock cones have shed their seeds, but there are some closed yet on the ground. March 6, 1853

A still and mild moonlight night and people walking about the streets. March 6, 1860

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 © 2009-2016