A time to walk by the river full of reflections.

 

December 14 

 P. M. -- With C. up north bank of Assabet to bridge.

Good sleighing still, with but little snow.

A warm, thawing day.

December 14, 2024

The river is open almost its whole length. It is a beautifully smooth mirror within an icy frame.

It is well to improve such a time to walk by it.

This strip of water of irregular width over the channel, between broad fields of ice, looks like a polished silver mirror, or like another surface of polished ice, and often is distinguished from the surrounding ice only by its reflections.

I have rarely seen any reflections --  of weeds, willows, and elms, and the houses of the village -- so distinct, the stems so black and distinct; for they contrast not with a green meadow but clear white ice, to say nothing of the silvery surface of the water.  Your eye slides first over a plane surface of smooth ice of one color to a water surface of silvery smoothness, like a gem set in ice, and reflecting the weeds and trees and houses and clouds with singular beauty.

The reflections are particularly simple and distinct. These twigs are not referred to and confounded with a broad green meadow from which they spring, as in summer, but, instead of that dark-green ground, absorbing the light, is this abrupt white field of ice.

We see so little open and smooth water at this season that I am inclined to improve such an opportunity to walk along the river, and moreover the meadows, being more or less frozen, make it more feasible than in summer.

I am singularly interested by the sight of the shrubs which grow along rivers, rising now above the snow, with buds and catkins,-- the willows, alders, sweetgale, etc.

At our old bathing-place on the Assabet, saw two ducks, which at length took to wing. They had large dark heads, dark wings, and clear white breasts. I think they were buffle-headed or spirit ducks. 

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, December 14, 1854

Large dark heads, dark wings, and clear white breasts. I think they were buffle-headed or spirit ducks. See January 7, 1853 ("He shows me the spirit duck of the Indians, of which Peabody says the Indians call it by a word meaning spirit, "because of the wonderful quickness with which it disappears at the twang of a bow.""); April 19, 1855 ('A little duck, asleep with its head in its back, exactly in the middle of the pond. It has a moderate-sized black head and neck, a white breast, and seems dark-brown above, with a white spot on the side of the head. . .and another, perhaps, on the end of the wing, with some black there.. . .I think it is the smallest duck I ever saw. Floating buoyantly asleep on the middle of Walden Pond. Is it not a female of the buffle-headed or spirit duck?"); April 22, 1861 (" [Mann] obtained to-day the buffle-headed duck, diving in the river near the Nine-Acre Corner bridge. I identify it at sight as my bird seen on Walden. ") See also J J Audubon (The bufflehead, being known in different districts by the names of Spirit Duck, Butter-box, Marrionette, Dipper, and Die-dipper,") Compare December 26, 1853 ("Saw in [Walden] a small diver, probably a grebe or dobchick, dipper, or what-not, ... It had a black head, a white ring about its neck, a white breast, black back, and apparently no tail.”); September 27, 1860 ("[The little dipper] has a dark bill and considerable white on the sides of the head or neck, with black between it, no tufts, and no observable white on back or tail.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Little Dipper

December 14. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau  December 14

The open river –

smooth mirror in icy frame

full of reflections.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, A time to walk by the river full of reflections.

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 © 2009-2024

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-541214

A little dipper in middle of the river.

September 27

Looking up, I see a little dipper in the middle of the river, evidently attracted by tame ducks, as to a place of security.

I sit down and watch.

The tame ducks have paddled four or five rods down-stream along the shore. The dipper approaches them by diving, and, in fear, they all rush to the shore and come out. The dipper shows itself close to the shore, and, when they enter the water again, joins them within two feet, still diving from time to time and threatening to come up in their midst.

They return up-stream, more or less alarmed, pursued in this wise by the dipper, who does not know what to make of their fears. Soon the dipper is thus within twenty feet of where I sit, and I can watch it at my leisure.

It has a dark bill and considerable white on the sides of the head or neck, with black between it, no tufts, and no observable white on back or tail. 

J J Audubon Fuligula albeola Buffle-headed Duck

When at last disturbed by me, it suddenly sinks all its body low in the water without diving.  Thus it can float at various heights.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 27, 1860

A little dipper in the middle of the river.  See September 8, 1859 ("See the black head and neck of a little dipper in mid stream, a few rods before my boat. It disappears, and though I search carefully, I cannot detect it again."); September 9, 1858 ("At length the walker who sits meditating on a distant bank sees the little dipper sail out from amid the weeds and busily dive for its food along their edge: Yet ordinary eyes might range up and down the river all day and never detect its small black head above the water.");  September 30, 1858 ("I see undoubtedly the little dipper by the edge of the pads this afternoon . . . It is much smaller than I have seen this season, and is hard to detect even within four or five rods. It warily dives and comes up a rod or two further off amid the pads, scarcely disturbing the surface"); October 17, 1855  ("I see behind (or rather in front of) me as I row home a little dipper appear in mid-river, as if I had passed right over him. It dives while I look, and I do not see it come up anywhere."); November 21, 1858 ("See from Clamshell apparently two little dippers, one up-stream, the other down, swimming and diving in the perfectly smooth river this still, overcast day."); December 14, 1854 (" Two ducks, which at length took to wing. They had large dark heads, dark wings, and clear white breasts. I think they were buffle-headed or spirit ducks."); December 26, 1853 ("Saw in [Walden] a small diver, probably a grebe or dobchick, dipper, or what-not . . . It had a black head, a white ring about its neck, a white breast, black back, and apparently no tail.”); See also J J Audubon ("The bufflehead, being known in different districts by the names of Spirit Duck, Butter-box, Marrionette, Dipper, and Die-dipper, generally returns from the far north, where it is said to breed, about the beginning of September.") and A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Little Dipper

September 27. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, September 27

A little dipper

in middle of the river –

I sit down and watch.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, A little dipper in middle of the river

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 © 2009-2024

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-600927