March 10, 1853.
This is the first really spring day. The sun is brightly reflected from all surfaces….
P. M. To Second Division Brook. ....
Something analogous to the thawing of the ice seems to have taken place in the air. At the end of winter there is a season in which we are daily expecting spring, and finally a day when it arrives.
I see many middling-sized black spiders on the edge of the snow, very active. …. Methinks the first obvious evidence of spring is the pushing out of the swamp willow catkins, then the relaxing of the earlier alder catkins, then the pushing up of skunk-cabbage spathes (and pads at the bottom of water). This is the order I am inclined to, though perhaps any of these may take precedence of all the rest in any particular case.
What is that dark pickle-green alga (?) at the bottom of this ditch, looking somewhat like a decaying cress, with fruit like a lichen?
At Nut Meadow Brook crossing we rest awhile on the rail, gazing into the eddying stream. The ripple-marks on the sandy bottom, where silver spangles shine in the river with black wrecks of caddis-cases lodged under each shelving sand, the shadows of the invisible dimples reflecting prismatic colors on the bottom….
What was that sound that came on the softened air? It was the warble of the first bluebird from that scraggy apple orchard yonder. When this is heard, then has spring arrived. ….
The alder's catkins - the earliest of them - are very plainly expanding, or, rather, the scales are loose and separated, and the whole catkin relaxed.
-H.D.T.
March 10, 2021. 11:15 a.m. 46 degrees.
The sun is bright on this cloudless day, with very warm temperatures that will rise even higher later into the 50s. Spring is here.
I visit Nut Meadow Brook, first looking east from the bridge at Old Road to Nine Acre Corner as the brook flows toward the Sudbury River. Through the sun-reflective water, gently streaming underneath me, I see the sandy, rocky bottom. Looking into the thick brush ahead, I see movement of a large animal, and wait patiently for a full view - a coyote! With a reddish-brown and gray coat and sinewy body with thick long tail, the animal is unmistakable and wild looking. It moves in and out of view, stalking slowly toward the south, undoubtedly scouting for food. I am able to get a few closer looks at the creature through my binoculars. It is so exciting to think that these types of exotic, wild creatures are right here in what we so often assume are such tame, fragmented and ecologically despoiled tracks of suburban woods!
I explore the woods on a trail to the north of the brook on land owned by Newbury Court. The area is a veritable playground of bluebirds, innumerable amounts, which are chasing, singing and playing with each other as if children at recess. This year I have never seen so many bluebirds, and although now in greater numbers and a sign of spring, I have noticed many throughout the winter.
On the other side of the road at the bridge, I find a small white fishing spider on the water by the snow-covered banking. Further upstream, in a ponded portion of the brook, I find what could be called dark pickle-green algae colored water, a la Thoreau's description, but with a thicker bright-green algae scum on the surface rather than below.
With a little extra time, I explore on the other side of the road along the southern bank of the brook. I find the coyote’s muddy, 2.5-inch prints by the waterside and its trail toward the south. Two sets of black-colored ducks fly off to the Sudbury as I move closer. I have found rising skunk cabbage spathes in many locations since mid-winter, but discover none here today. (I include a photo from March 14 by Great Meadows to round out the photo collection below.) I see many gray alder trees with catkins and cones by the waterbank and even on hummocks of grassy earth within the brook. Akin to Thoreau's observations, the reddish catkins feel a bit loosened and semi-pliable, readying for spring.
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