I would make a chart of our life,
know why just this circle of creatures completes the world.
Observe all kinds of coincidences,
as what kinds of birds come with what flowers.
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852
My first phoebe flirts
its tail and sings pre vit, pre
vit, pre vit, pre-VEE
April 1, 1859
March 26. Heard a pewee. This, it seems to me, is the first true pewee day, though they have been here some time. March 26, 1854
March 27. C. saw a phoebe, i e. pewee, the 25th. March 27, 1858
March 29. Hear a phoebe early in the morning over the street . . . see five or six painted turtles in the sun, – probably some were out yesterday, — and afterward, along a ditch just east of the pine hill near the river, a great many more, as many as twenty within a rod . . . They seem to come out into the sun about the time the phoebe is heard over the water. March 29, 1858
March 30. Spring is already upon us . . . The pewee is heard, and the lark. March 30, 1851
March 30. Saw a pewee from the railroad causeway. March 30, 1852
March 31. The pewee sings in earnest, the first I have heard; and at even I hear the first real robin's song. March 31, 1860
March 27. C. saw a phoebe, i e. pewee, the 25th. March 27, 1858
March 29. Hear a phoebe early in the morning over the street . . . see five or six painted turtles in the sun, – probably some were out yesterday, — and afterward, along a ditch just east of the pine hill near the river, a great many more, as many as twenty within a rod . . . They seem to come out into the sun about the time the phoebe is heard over the water. March 29, 1858
March 30. Spring is already upon us . . . The pewee is heard, and the lark. March 30, 1851
March 30. Saw a pewee from the railroad causeway. March 30, 1852
March 31. The pewee sings in earnest, the first I have heard; and at even I hear the first real robin's song. March 31, 1860
See April 1, 1860 ("As we paddle up the Assabet we hear the wood turtles -- the first I have noticed — and painted turtles rustling down the bank into the water. . .This and the previous two days have brought them out in numbers"); April 5, 1860 ("I hear, or think that I hear, a very faint distant ring of toads.")
April 1. Up Assabet . . . Hear a phoebe. April 1, 1857
April 1. 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 1, 1859
April 2. 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 2, 1852
April 2. 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. April 2, 1859
April 5. 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? April 5, 1853
See April 7, 1853 ("Several painted tortoises; no doubt have been out a long time")
April 5. 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 . . . See to-day a painted tortoise, already out on the bank on a tuft of grass. April 5, 1855
April 6. Just beyond Wood’s Bridge, I hear the pewee. 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. April 6, 1856
April 7. At the Hubbard Bridge, we hear the incessant note of the phoebe,— pevet, pe-e-vet, pevee’ —its innocent, somewhat impatient call. April 7, 1856
See April 15, 1856 ("First salmon and shad at Haverhill to-day. . . . I am surprised to hear the first loud, clear, prolonged ring of a toad ")
April 9. Hear a phoebe near the river. April 9, 1855
April 13. Pewee days and April showers. First hear toads . . . First shad caught at Haverhill to-day. April 13, 1853
April 9. Hear a phoebe near the river. April 9, 1855
April 13. Pewee days and April showers. First hear toads . . . First shad caught at Haverhill to-day. April 13, 1853
April 15. Robins sing now at 10 A. M. as in the morning, and the phoebe. April 15, 1855
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Robin in Spring
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Lark in Early Spring
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Arrival of the Eastern Wood Pewee
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Colors of March-- Brown Season
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, April 1
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Arrival of the Phoebe in Early Spring
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/HDTphoebe
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