April 7.
The Cheney elm looks as if it would shed pollen to-morrow,[no], and the Salix purpurea will perhaps within a week.
Standing under the north side of the hill, I hear the rather innocent phe phe, phe phe, phe phe, phe' of a fish hawk (for it is not a scream, but a rather soft and innocent note), and, looking up, see one come sailing from over the hill. The body looks quite short in proportion to the spread of the wings, which are quite dark or blackish above. He evidently has something in his talons.
We soon after disturb him again, and, at length, after circling around over the hill and adjacent fields, he alights in plain sight on one of the half-dead white oaks on the top of the hill, where probably he sat before. As I look through my glass, he is perched on a large dead limb and is evidently standing on a fish (I had noticed something in his talons as he flew), for he stands high and uneasily, finding it hard to keep his balance in the wind.
He is disturbed by our neighborhood and does not proceed at once to eat his meal. I see the tail of the fish hanging over the end of the limb. Now and then he pecks at it. I see the white on the crown of the hawk. It is a very large black bird as seen against the sky. Soon he sails away again, carrying his fish, as before, horizontally beneath his circles about over the adjacent pasture like a hawk hunting, though he can only be looking for a suitable place to eat his fish or waiting for us to be gone.
Looking under the limb on which he was perched, we find a piece of the skin of a sucker (?) or some other scaly fish which a hawk had dropped there long since. No doubt many a fish hawk has taken his meal on that sightly perch.
It seems, then, that the fish hawk which you see soaring and sailing so leisurely about over the land — for this one soared quite high into the sky at one time — may have a fish in his talons all the while and only be waiting till you are gone for an opportunity to eat it on his accustomed perch.
I told Pratt my theory of the formation of a swamp on a hillside, but he thought that the growth of the alders, etc., there would not make the ground any more moist there, but less so, and stated that the soil (as he had noticed) was drier under rank grass in a mowing-field than at the same depth under a surface of bare and hot sand, because the grass took up the moisture from the soil.
I saw a hole (probably of a woodchuck) partly dug on the east side of the hill, and three or four large stones lay on the fresh sand-heap thrown out, which the wood- chuck had pushed up from below. One was about six inches long by four or more wide and might weigh four pounds, and, looking into the hole, whose bottom I could not see, I saw another nearly as large about three feet down, on its way up. I have seen their holes dug in much worse places than this. This hole sloped downward at a considerable angle, so that the stones had to be pushed up a steep slope.
A small hawk flies swiftly past on the side of the hill, swift and low, apparently the same as that of April 3d, a deep rusty brown.
The woodchuck probably digs in a stony place that he may be the more secure.
I hear there the hovering note of a snipe at 4.30 p.m., — unusually early in the day.
Find a Sternothcerus odoratus so far from water on Simon Brown's knoll, where water has not been since about March 20th, that I think he was then washed and left there and has since lain in the ground. There are two or three small leeches on him, which may have adhered to him all winter.
The white man's relics in the fields are like the Indian's, — pipes, pottery, and (instead of arrowheads) bullets.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 7, 1859
The Cheney elm looks as if it would shed pollen to-morrow. See April 15, 1852 (“The broad flat brown buds on Mr. Cheney's elm, containing twenty or thirty yellowish-green threads, surmounted with little brownish-mulberry cups, which contain the stamens and the two styles, -- these are just expanding or blossoming now.”); April 16, 1856 (“Cheney’s elm shows stamens on the warm side pretty numerously.”); April 17, 1855 (“The flowers of the common elm at Lee’s are now loose and dangling, apparently well out a day or two in advance of Cheney’s, but I see no pollen. ”)
I hear the rather innocent phe phe, phe phe, phe phe, phe' of a fish hawk , and, looking up, see one come sailing from over the hill. See April 6, 1859 ("A fish hawk sails down the river, from time to time almost stationary one hundred feet above the water, notwithstanding the very strong wind.”); April 14, 1852 ("The streams break up; the ice goes to the sea. Then sails the fish hawk overhead, looking for his prey.”) April 25, 1858 (“ I hear the phe phe, phe phe, phe phe, phe phe, phe, the sharp whistling note, of a fish hawk. . . . There is about half a second between each note, and he utters them either while perched or while flying. He shows a great proportion of wing and some white on back. The wings are much curved. He sails along some eighty feet above the water’s edge, looking for fish, and alights again quite near. I see him an hour afterward about the same spot.”)See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau The Osprey (Fish Hawk)
A small hawk flies swiftly past on the side of the hill, swift and low, apparently the same as that of April 3d, a deep rusty brown. See April 3, 1859 ("Near to the pond I see a small hawk, larger than a pigeon hawk, fly past, — a deep brown with a light spot on the side. I think it probable it was a sharp-shinned hawk.”) See also See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the sharp-shinned hawk.
I hear there the hovering note of a snipe at 4.30 p.m., — unusually early in the day. See April 7, 1858 ("Snipes rise two or three times as I go over the meadow"); see also April 6, 1854 ("Hear the snipe over the meadows this evening."); April 9, 1853 ("Hear the snipe a short time at early starlight"); April 9, 1855 ("Some twenty minutes after sundown I hear the first booming of a snipe.") and A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau: the Snipe
April 7, 2019
The Cheney elm looks as if it would shed pollen to-morrow,[no], and the Salix purpurea will perhaps within a week.
Standing under the north side of the hill, I hear the rather innocent phe phe, phe phe, phe phe, phe' of a fish hawk (for it is not a scream, but a rather soft and innocent note), and, looking up, see one come sailing from over the hill. The body looks quite short in proportion to the spread of the wings, which are quite dark or blackish above. He evidently has something in his talons.
We soon after disturb him again, and, at length, after circling around over the hill and adjacent fields, he alights in plain sight on one of the half-dead white oaks on the top of the hill, where probably he sat before. As I look through my glass, he is perched on a large dead limb and is evidently standing on a fish (I had noticed something in his talons as he flew), for he stands high and uneasily, finding it hard to keep his balance in the wind.
He is disturbed by our neighborhood and does not proceed at once to eat his meal. I see the tail of the fish hanging over the end of the limb. Now and then he pecks at it. I see the white on the crown of the hawk. It is a very large black bird as seen against the sky. Soon he sails away again, carrying his fish, as before, horizontally beneath his circles about over the adjacent pasture like a hawk hunting, though he can only be looking for a suitable place to eat his fish or waiting for us to be gone.
Looking under the limb on which he was perched, we find a piece of the skin of a sucker (?) or some other scaly fish which a hawk had dropped there long since. No doubt many a fish hawk has taken his meal on that sightly perch.
It seems, then, that the fish hawk which you see soaring and sailing so leisurely about over the land — for this one soared quite high into the sky at one time — may have a fish in his talons all the while and only be waiting till you are gone for an opportunity to eat it on his accustomed perch.
I told Pratt my theory of the formation of a swamp on a hillside, but he thought that the growth of the alders, etc., there would not make the ground any more moist there, but less so, and stated that the soil (as he had noticed) was drier under rank grass in a mowing-field than at the same depth under a surface of bare and hot sand, because the grass took up the moisture from the soil.
I saw a hole (probably of a woodchuck) partly dug on the east side of the hill, and three or four large stones lay on the fresh sand-heap thrown out, which the wood- chuck had pushed up from below. One was about six inches long by four or more wide and might weigh four pounds, and, looking into the hole, whose bottom I could not see, I saw another nearly as large about three feet down, on its way up. I have seen their holes dug in much worse places than this. This hole sloped downward at a considerable angle, so that the stones had to be pushed up a steep slope.
A small hawk flies swiftly past on the side of the hill, swift and low, apparently the same as that of April 3d, a deep rusty brown.
The woodchuck probably digs in a stony place that he may be the more secure.
I hear there the hovering note of a snipe at 4.30 p.m., — unusually early in the day.
Find a Sternothcerus odoratus so far from water on Simon Brown's knoll, where water has not been since about March 20th, that I think he was then washed and left there and has since lain in the ground. There are two or three small leeches on him, which may have adhered to him all winter.
The white man's relics in the fields are like the Indian's, — pipes, pottery, and (instead of arrowheads) bullets.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 7, 1859
The Cheney elm looks as if it would shed pollen to-morrow. See April 15, 1852 (“The broad flat brown buds on Mr. Cheney's elm, containing twenty or thirty yellowish-green threads, surmounted with little brownish-mulberry cups, which contain the stamens and the two styles, -- these are just expanding or blossoming now.”); April 16, 1856 (“Cheney’s elm shows stamens on the warm side pretty numerously.”); April 17, 1855 (“The flowers of the common elm at Lee’s are now loose and dangling, apparently well out a day or two in advance of Cheney’s, but I see no pollen. ”)
I hear the rather innocent phe phe, phe phe, phe phe, phe' of a fish hawk , and, looking up, see one come sailing from over the hill. See April 6, 1859 ("A fish hawk sails down the river, from time to time almost stationary one hundred feet above the water, notwithstanding the very strong wind.”); April 14, 1852 ("The streams break up; the ice goes to the sea. Then sails the fish hawk overhead, looking for his prey.”) April 25, 1858 (“ I hear the phe phe, phe phe, phe phe, phe phe, phe, the sharp whistling note, of a fish hawk. . . . There is about half a second between each note, and he utters them either while perched or while flying. He shows a great proportion of wing and some white on back. The wings are much curved. He sails along some eighty feet above the water’s edge, looking for fish, and alights again quite near. I see him an hour afterward about the same spot.”)See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau The Osprey (Fish Hawk)
A small hawk flies swiftly past on the side of the hill, swift and low, apparently the same as that of April 3d, a deep rusty brown. See April 3, 1859 ("Near to the pond I see a small hawk, larger than a pigeon hawk, fly past, — a deep brown with a light spot on the side. I think it probable it was a sharp-shinned hawk.”) See also See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the sharp-shinned hawk.
I hear there the hovering note of a snipe at 4.30 p.m., — unusually early in the day. See April 7, 1858 ("Snipes rise two or three times as I go over the meadow"); see also April 6, 1854 ("Hear the snipe over the meadows this evening."); April 9, 1853 ("Hear the snipe a short time at early starlight"); April 9, 1855 ("Some twenty minutes after sundown I hear the first booming of a snipe.") and A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau: the Snipe
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