Monday, March 13, 2023

A Book of the Seasons, Signs of the Spring: the grackle arrives



No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of the spring. 
Henry Thoreau, March 17, 1857

Above railroad bridge
see a small flock of grackles 
on the willow-row. 
March 8, 1860




February 23.   I have seen signs of the spring.  February 23, 1857

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

March 8. See a small flock of grackles on the willow-row above railroad bridge. How they sit and make a business of chattering! for it cannot be called singing, and no improvement from age to age perhaps. Yet, as nature is a becoming, their notes may become melodious at last. At length, on my very near approach, they fit suspiciously away, uttering a few subdued notes as they hurry off. 
This is the first flock of blackbirds I have chanced to see, though Channing saw one the 6th. I suspect that I have seen only grackles as yet.  March 8, 1860

March 9.  C. also saw a skater-insect on the 7th, and a single blackbird flying over Cassandra Ponds, which he thought a grackle. March 9, 1859

March 13.  Probably grackles have been seen some days. I think I saw them on the 11th? March 13, 1859

March 14. I see a large flock of grackles searching for food along the water's edge, just below Dr. Bartlett's. Some wade in the water. They are within a dozen rods of me and the road. It must be something just washed up that they are searching for, for the water has just risen and is still rising fast. Is it not insects and worms washed out of the grass? and perhaps the snails? When a grackle sings, it is as if his mouth were full of cotton, which he was trying to spit out.  March 14, 1859

March 18The blackbird — probably grackle this time —wings his way direct above the swamp northward, with a regular tchuck, carrier haste, calling the summer months along, like a hen her chickens.  March 18, 1858

March 19.  Met Channing and walked on with him to what we will call Grackle Swamp . . . In the swamp, see grackles, four or five, with the light ring about eye, — their bead eyes. They utter only those ineffectual split notes, no conqueree . . . By the river, see distinctly red-wings and hear their conqueree. They are not associated with grackles . . .Their whistle is very clear and sharp, while the grackle's is ragged and split. March 19, 1858

March 21.  A crow blackbird. March 21, 1859

March 29.  It would be worth the while to attend more to the different notes of the blackbirds. Methinks I may have seen the female red-wing within a day or two; or what are these purely black ones without the red shoulder? It is pleasant to see them scattered about on the drying meadow. The red-wings will stand close to the water’s edge, looking larger than usual, with their red shoulders very distinct and handsome in that position, and sing okolee, or bob-y-lee, or what-not. Others, on the tops of trees over your head, out of a fuzzy beginning spit forth a clear, shrill whistle incessantly, for what purpose I don’t know. Others, on the elms over the water, utter still another note, each time lifting their wings slightly. Others are flying across the stream with a loud char-r, char-r. March 29, 1853

March 29.  When I have put my boat in its harbor, I hear that sign-squeaking blackbird, and, looking up, see half a dozen on the top of the elm at the foot of Whiting’s lot. They are not red-wings, and by their size they make me think of crow blackbirds, yet on the whole I think them grackles (?). Possibly those I heard on the 18th were the same?? Does the red-wing ever make a noise like a rusty sign?  March 29, 1857

March 29. Nearly as warm and pleasant as yesterday. I see what I suppose is the female rusty grackle; black body with green reflections and purplish-brown head and neck, but I notice no light iris.  March 29, 1858

*****

Signs of the Spring: 

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