A Book of the Seasons: The Arrival of the Eastern Wood Pewee

 

For the first time I perceive this spring that the year is a circle.

I would make a chart of our life,

know why just this circle of creatures completes the world.

Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852

I do not hear those peculiar tender die-away notes from the pewee yet.

Is it another pewee, or a later note? 

April 14, 1852

Pee-a-wee, Pee-oo.

In the wood behind the spring

a wood pewee sings.

May 23, 1854

May 17.   I hear the wood pewee, — pe-a-wai. The heat of yesterday has brought him on. May 17, 1853

May 17.   Hear the wood pewee, the warm weather sound. May 17, 1854

May 19.   Wood pewee. May 19, 1856

May 22.The wood pewee’s warm note is heard . . .This is the first truly lively summer Sunday, what with lilacs, warm weather, waving rye, slight dusty sandy roads in some places, falling apple blossoms, etc., etc., and the wood pewee. May 22, 1853

May 22. I hear also pe-a-wee pe-a-wee, and then occasionally pee-yu, the first syllable in a different and higher key emphasized, — all very sweet and naive and innocent. May 22, 1854

May 23. The wood pewee sings now in the woods behind the spring in the heat of the day (2 p. m.), sitting on a low limb near me, pe-a-wee, pe-a-wee, etc., five or six times at short and regular intervals, looking about all the while, and then, naively, pee-a-oo, emphasizing the first syllable, and begins again. It flies off occasionally a few feet, catches an insect and returns to its perch between the bars, not allowing this to interrupt their order. May 23, 1854

May 24. Hear the wood pewee.  May 24, 1859

May 24. Hear a wood pewee. May 24, 1860

May 25. Wood pewee. May 25, 1855

May 26..  I hear the pea-wai, the tender note. May 26, 1852

May 26.   Wood pewee. May 26, 1857

May 28.  Hear the wood pewee. May 28, 1858

Last night the eastern wood pewee was not heard, 

but tonight it was peeweeing in the creeping darkness of the evening.

Spring is coming to an end and 

the thickness of summer will soon take its place.

Avesong May 24, 2009.

See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Eastern Wood-Pewee

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Arrival of the Eastern Wood Pewee

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