Sunday, April 5, 2020

The bluebird comes to us bright in his vernal dress as a bridegroom.

April 5 

The bluebird comes to us bright in his vernal dress as a bridegroom. (Cleared up at noon, making a day and a half of rain.) Has he not got new feathers then? 

Brooks says “the greater number of birds renew their plumage in autumn only;” if they have two moults, spring and autumn, there is still but one of the wings and tail feathers. 

Also says that in the spring various “birds undergo a change of color unaccompanied by any moult.” 

I have noticed the few phoebes, not to mention other birds, mostly near the river. Is it not because of the greater abundance of insects there, those early moths or ephemeræ? As these and other birds are most numerous there, the red-tailed hawk is there to catch them?

H. D. Thoreau, Journal  April 5, 1853 

The bluebird comes to us bright in his vernal dress as a bridegroom. See April 3, 1852 ("The bluebird carries the sky on his back ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Bluebird in Early Spring.


I have noticed the few phoebes mostly near the river.
See March 16, 1854 ("The first phoebe near the water is heard. "); April 1, 1859 ("At the Pokelogan up 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 2, 1852 (" For a long distance, as we paddle up the river, we hear the two-stanza'd lay of the pewee on the shore, - pee-wet, pee-wee, etc. Those are the two obvious facts to eye and ear, the river and the pewee.");  April 6, 1856 ("With 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! If there is one within half a mile, it will be here, and I shall be sure to hear its simple notes from those trees, borne over the water.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Eastern Phoebe

Abundance of insects there, those early moths or ephemeræ. See March 11, 1855 ("Many of those dirty-white millers or ephemera in the air."); April 2, 1859 ("There are many fuzzy gnats now in the air, . . . not, perhaps, so thick as they will be, but they are suddenly much thicker than they were, and perhaps their presence affects the arrival of the phoebe, which, I suspect, feeds on them.").

As these and other birds are most numerous there, the red-tailed hawk is there to catch them? See April 5, 1855 ("The snipe too, then, like crows, robins, blackbirds, and hens, is found near the waterside, . . . , and there too especially are heard the song and tree sparrows and pewees, and even the hen-hawk at this season haunts there for his prey.")

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