A Book of the Seasons, The Brown Creeper

  

I would make a chart of our life, know how its shores trend,

 that butterflies reappear and when,

 know why just this circle of creatures completes the world.

Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852

I hear a faint note --

a brown creeper inspecting

branches of the oaks.

January 22, 1857

Think how thoroughly the trees 

are thus explored by various birds.

You can hardly sit near one for five minutes now,

but either a woodpecker or creeper 

comes and examines its bark rapidly,

or a warbler makes a pretty thorough 

exploration about all its expanding leaflets,

even to the topmost twig.

The whole North American forest

 is being thus explored for insect food.

Each is visited by many kinds and thus

the equilibrium of the insect and 

vegetable kingdom is preserved.

May 16, 1860

February 14. . All at once an active little brown creeper makes its appearance, a small, rather slender bird, with a long tail and sparrow-colored back, and white beneath. It commences at the bottom of a tree and glides up very rapidly, then suddenly darts to the bottom of a new tree and repeats the same movement, not resting long in one place or on one tree. February 14, 1854

March 25. I have not seen a tree sparrow, nuthatch, creeper, nor more than one redpoll since Christmas. They probably went further south. March 25, 1856

May 16.  Near Peter's I see a small creeper hopping along the branches of the oaks and pines, ever turning this way and that as it hops, making various angles with the bough; then flies across to another bough, or to the base of another tree, and traces that up, zigzag and prying into the crevices. May 16, 1860

November 26.  I see here to-day one brown creeper busily inspecting the pitch pines. It begins at the base, and creeps rapidly upward by starts, adhering close to the bark and shifting a little from side to side often till near the top, then suddenly darts off downward to the base of another tree, where it repeats the same course. November 26, 1859

December 21. Going to the post-office at 9 A. M. this very pleasant morning, I hear and see tree sparrows on Wheildon’s pines, and just beyond scare a downy woodpecker and a brown creeper in company, from near the base of a small elm within three feet of me. The former dashes off with a loud rippling of the wing, and the creeper flits across the street to the base of another small elm, whither I follow. At first he hides behind the base, but ere long works his way upward and comes in sight. He is a gray-brown, a low curve from point of beak to end of tail, resting flat against the tree. December 21, 1855

January 2.  It is singular that the nuthatch and the creeper should be so rare, they are so regular. January 2, 1857

January 22.  In the woods by Abel Brooks's rye hollow I hear a faint note, and see undoubtedly a brown creeper inspecting the branches of the oaks. It has white and black bars on the head, uttering from time to time a fine, wiry, screeping tse, tse, or tse, tse, tse. January 22, 1857

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Brown Creeper

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 ©  2009-2026

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-creeper

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