April true.

April 1. 

8 A. M. —Up Assabet. 

See an Emys guttata sunning on the bank. I had forgotten whether I ever saw it in this river. 

Hear a phoebe, and this morning the tree sparrows sing very sweetly about Keyes’s arbor-vitae and Cheney’s pines and apple trees. 

Crow blackbirds. I think it must have been these I saw the 29th of March. 

Checkerberries very fair and abundant now near Muhlenbergii Brook, contrasting with the red-brown leaves. They are not commonly touched by the frost.

I see children picking spring cranberries in the meadows. 

It is a true April evening, feeling and looking as if it would rain, and already I hear a robin or two singing their evening song.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 1, 1857

I had forgotten whether I ever saw it [Emys guttata] in this river. See  March 28, 1857 (“Do I ever see a yellow-spot turtle in the river? Do I ever see a wood tortoise in the South Branch?”)

Hear a phoebe . . . See April 1, 1859 (“[U]p the Assabet, I see my first phoebe, the mild bird. It flirts its tail and sings pre vit, pre vit, pre vit, pre vit incessantly, as it sits over the water, and then at last, rising on the last syllable, says pre-VEE, as if insisting on that with peculiar emphasis. “); April 6, 1856 ("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!")

Checkerberries very fair and abundant now near Muhlenbergii Brook. . . See October 15, 1856 (“An abundance of checkerberries by the hemlock at V. Muhlenbergii Brook. A remarkable year for berries.”)

A true April evening, feeling and looking as if it would rain, and already I hear a robin or two singing their evening song. See April 2, 1854 ("Sitting on the rail over the brook, I hear something which reminds me of the song of the robin in rainy days in past springs.”): April 1, 1854 ("The robin now begins to sing sweet powerfully. . . .April has begun like itself. It is warm and showery, while I sail away with a light southwest wind toward the Rock.”); April 1, 1855 (The month comes in true to its reputation.  . . .warm rain on the roof, and . . .the puddles shining in the road. “)