No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of the spring.
Henry Thoreau, March 17, 1857
Now, when the sap of the trees is probably beginning to flow,
the sap of the earth -- the river -- overflows and bursts its icy fetters.
I must be on the lookout now for the gulls and the ducks.
That dark-blue meadowy revelation.
March 8, 1853
Ducks on the meadow
leave a long furrow in the
water behind them.
February 25. I go across the Great Fields to Peter's, but can see no ducks on the meadows. I suspect they have not come yet, in spite of the openness. February 25, 1857
February 27. I had noticed for some time, far in the middle of the Great Meadows, something dazzlingly white, which I took, of course, to be a small cake of ice on its end, but now that I have climbed the pitch pine hill and can overlook the whole meadow, I see it to be the white breast of a male sheldrake accompanied perhaps by his mate . . .This is the first bird of the spring that I have seen or heard of. February 27, 1860
March 3. 2 P. M. — 50°; overcast and somewhat rain-threatening; wind southwest . . .See a flock of large ducks in a line, — maybe black? — over Great Meadows; also a few sheldrakes. March 3, 1860
March 4. See no ducks to-day, though much water. Nights too cold? March 4, 1860
March 5. I scare up six male sheldrakes, with their black heads, in the Assabet,—the first ducks I have seen. March 5, 1857
March 5. I see some tame ducks in the river, six of them. It is amusing to see how exactly perpendicular they will stand, with their heads on the bottom and their tails up, plucking some food there, three or four at once. Perhaps the grass, etc., is a little further advanced there for them. March 5, 1860
March 6. Sheldrakes and black ducks are the only ones [Jonas Melvin ] has seen this year. March 6, 1860
March 8. I must be on the lookout now for the gulls and the ducks. March 8, 1853
March 9. Saw several flocks of large grayish and whitish or speckled ducks, I suppose the same that P. calls sheldrakes. They, like ducks commonly, incline to fly in a line about an equal distance apart. I hear the common sort of quacking from them. It is pleasant to see them at a distance alight on the water with a slanting flight, launch themselves, and sail along so stately. The pieces of ice, large and small, drifting along, help to conceal them supply so many objects on the water. March 9, 1854
March 12. Two ducks in river, good size, white beneath with black heads, as they go over . . . Thus the river is no sooner fairly open than they are back again, — before I have got my boat launched, and long before the river has worn through Fair Haven Pond. I think I hear a quack or two. March 12, 1855
March 12. See two ducks flying over Ministerial Swamp. March 12, 1859
March 13. Garfield says he saw black ducks yesterday. March 13, 1859
March 16. The ducks alight at this season on the windward side of the river, in the smooth water, and swim about by twos and threes, pluming themselves and diving to peck at the root of the lily. March 16, 1840.
March 16. I see ducks afar, sailing on the meadow, leaving a long furrow in the water behind them. Watch them at leisure without scaring them, with my glass; observe their free and undisturbed motions . . . Others with bright white breasts, etc., and black heads . . . dive and are gone some time, and come up a rod off. At first I saw but one, then, a minute after, three . . . The first phoebe near the water is heard . . . It is warm weather. A thunder-storm in the evening. March 16, 1854
March 16. Cloudy in the forenoon. Sun comes out and it is rather pleasant in the afternoon . . . Scare up two large ducks just above the bridge. One very large; white beneath, breast and neck; black head and wings and aft. The other much smaller and dark. Apparently male and female. They alight more than a hundred rods south of the bridge, and I view them with glass. The larger sails about on the watch, while the smaller, dark one dives repeatedly. I think it the goosander or sheldrake. March 16, 1855
March 16. Saw a flock of sheldrakes a hundred rods off, on the Great Meadows, mostly males with a few females, all intent on fishing. March 16, 1860
March 17. Hosmer says he has seen black ducks. March 17, 1855
March 18. The season is so far advanced that the sun, every now and then promising to shine out through this rather warm rain, lighting up transiently with a whiter light the dark day and my dark chamber, affects me as I have not been affected for a long time. I must go forth. How eagerly the birds of passage penetrate the northern ice, watching for a crack by which to enter! Forthwith the swift ducks will be seen winging their way along the rivers and up the coast. They watch the weather more sedulously than the teamster. All nature is thus forward to move with the revolution of the seasons .March 18,1853
March 18. Hearing a faint quack , I looked up and saw two apparently dusky ducks winging their swift way northward over the course of the river . Channing says he saw some large white - breasted ducks to-day. March 18, 1853
March 18. R. thinks that the ducks will be seen more numerous, gathering on our waters, just before a storm, like yesterday’s. March 18, 1859
March 19. It blows so hard that you walk aslant against the wind . . . The meadows are all in commotion. The ducks are now concealed by the waves, if there are any floating there. March 19, 1859
March 20. We go looking in vain for ducks, – a semiriparial walk. From time to time we are deceived a moment by a shining cake of ice on its edge at a distance . . . At last I see a small, straight flock of ducks going northeast in the distance. March 20,1858
March 20. A. Buttrick said to-day that the black ducks come when the grass begins to grow in the meadows, i.e. in the water. March 20, 1860
March 21. River skimmed over at Willow Bay last night. Think I should find ducks cornered up by the ice; they get behind this hill for shelter. Look with glass and find more than thirty black ducks asleep with their heads on their backs, motionless, and thin ice formed about them.
There was an open space, eight or ten rods by one or two. At first all within a space of apparently less than a rod diameter. Soon one or two are moving about slowly. It is 6.30 a. m., the sun shining on them, but bitter cold. How tough they are! I crawl on my stomach and get a near view of them, thirty rods off. At length they detect me and quack. Some get out upon the ice, and when I rise up all take to flight in a great straggling flock. Yet, when you see two or three the parallelism produced by their necks and bodies steering the same way gives the idea of order. March 21, 1854
March 22. Launch boat and paddle to Fair Haven. Still very cold . . . Scare up my flock of black ducks and count forty together. March 22, 1854
March 22. Launch my boat and row downstream. There is a strong and cool northwest wind. Leaving our boat just below N. Barrett's, we walk down the shore . . . and, finding a sheltered and sunny place, we watch the ducks from it with our glass. There are not only gulls, but about forty black ducks and as many sheldrakes, and, I think, two wood ducks. . . .about forty black ducks, pretty close together, sometimes apparently in close single lines, some looking lumpish like decoys of wood, others standing on the bottom and reminding me of penguins. They were constantly diving with great energy, making the water fly apparently two feet upward in a thick shower. Then away they all go, circling about for ten minutes at least before they can decide where to alight.
The black heads and white breasts, which may be golden-eyes, for they are evidently paired, male and female, for the most part, —and yet I thought that I saw the red bill of the sheldrake (They are sheldrakes), —these are most incessantly and skillfully plunging and from time to time apparently pursuing each other. They are much more active, whether diving or swimming about, than you expect ducks to be. Now, perchance, they are seen changing their ground, swimming off, perhaps, two by two, in pairs, very steadily and swiftly, without diving. I see two of these very far off on a bright-blue bay where the waves are running high. They are two intensely white specks, which yet you might mistake for the foaming crest of waves. Now one disappears, but soon is seen again, and then its companion is lost in like manner, having dived. March 22, 1858
Thirty ducks asleep
with heads on backs, motionless –
ice forms about them.
See also
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Sheldrake (Goosander, Merganser)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,, the American Black Duck
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Ice-out
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,, Boat in. Boat out.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Eastern Phoebe
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, March 16
And, Signs of the Spring:
- A Change in the Air
- Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding
- Braided Ripples of Melting Snow Shine in the Ruts
- Bright Blue Water
- Buzzing Flies
- Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow
- Frogs, and Turtles Stirring
- Geese Overhead
- Greening Grasses and Sedges
- I begin to think that my wood will last
- Insects and Worms Come Forth and are Active
- Listening for the Bluebird
- March is famous for its Winds
- Mosses Bright Green
- My Greatcoat on my Arm
- Perla-like Insects Appear
- Red Maple Sap Flows
- Ripples made by Fishes
- Skunks Active
- The Anxious Peep of the Early Robin
- The crowing of cocks, the cawing of crows
- The Days have grown Sensibly Longer
- The Eaves Begin to Run
- The Gobbling of Turkeys
- The Grackle Arrives
- The Hawks of March
- The New Warmth of the Sun
- The Note of the Dark-eyed Junco Going Northward
- The Red-Wing Arrives
- The Skunk Cabbage Blooms
- The Softened Air of these Warm February Days
- The Song Sparrow Sings
- The Spring Note of the Chickadee
- The Spring Note of the Nuthatch
- The Striped Squirrel Comes Out
- The Water Bug (Gyrinus)
- The Woodchuck Ventures Out
- Walking without Gloves
- Woodpeckers TappingA Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Osier in Winter and early Spring
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,
Signs of the Spring, Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow
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 © 2009-2023
https://tinyurl.com/HDTmarchducks
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