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Feb. 10, 1855 - I hear the faint metallic chirp of a tree sparrow in the yard from time to time, or perchance the mew of a linaria. It is worthwhile to let some pigweed grow in your garden , if only to attract these winter visitors. It would be a pity to have these weeds burned in the fall. Of the former, I see in the winter but three or four commonly at a time; of the latter, large flocks. This is in or after considerable snowstorms. -- Henry D. Thoreau |
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February 10, 1999 |
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i brake for bald eagles |
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February 10 Plum Island Salisbury Beach Chain Bridge Amesbury - Merrimac St.
Copyright © 1998, Janet I. Egan |
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Gratitude. That's the only word I can think of to express what I felt this afternoon. Well, maybe awe and joy too. I was driving home along the back roads from Salisbury after having failed to find any bald eagles at the Chain Bridge, their known haunt, when I saw a really large dark bird out of the corner of my eye. It was circling over the Merrimack River and it swooped down low and flew parallel to the bank. I pulled off the road and whipped out the binoculars and my heart leapt. The white head, dark body, and ragged looking wings came into focus faster than I could say the words "bald eagle". It glided along the riverbank for quite awhile and I couldn't take my eyes off it. My description can't do it justice. Big. Dark. Powerful. There aren't words ... Gratitude, like I said. I am so grateful that the bald eagle has returned to Massachusetts. I felt gratitude to whatever higher power there may be and to the people who worked so hard to restore eagles here. Whatever the right-wing thinks about the endangered species act, it works. Meanwhile, yes I did go to work at the cat shelter today and washed plenty o' litter boxes. And somehow, I managed to be done by 11:15. Trevor got adopted. He went to his new home today. We were excited for him. I have no idea if cats feel anticipation... Moses's nose is much better, only a couple of very tiny patches show ringworm now. He'll be out amongst us in no time. The people at Brigham Manor want to adopt him, but there's already a hold on him and besides they need to wait for a new administrator to be hired before they can go ahead with adopting a cat. Jaguar was feeling particularly cuddly today. This is the third day in a row that I've spent time with him as he came to the Purrfect Companions meeting on Monday night, and I cuddled him for awhile on Tuesday when I brought Midnight back after our trip to Brigham Manor. I spent a long time chucking Jaguar under the chin and stroking his head. He head-butted me and purred. Jaguar is sooooo much mellower than when we first met. The "linaria" that Thoreau's journal entry for today mentions are redpolls. I'm not sure what pigweed is. I found a botanical concordance to Thoreau's journal on the web someplace and I thought I bookmarked it. The "linaria" reference I looked up in Thoreau on Birds, which Nancy gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. It's a collection of his journal entries organized according to the bird species mentioned. It also has an appendix listing bird references in Walden, Maine Woods, and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. The journal has numerous references to bald eagles, my favorite of which is: April 8, 1854 Saw a large bird sail along over the edge of Wheeler's cranberry meadow just below Fair Haven, which I at first thought a gull, but with my glass found it as a hawk and had a perfectly white head and tail and broad or blackish wings. It sailed and circled along over the low cliff and the crows dived at it in the field of my glass, and I saw it well, both above and beneath as it turned, and then it passed off to hover over the Cliffs at a greater height. It was undoubtedly a white-headed eagle. It was to the eye but a large hawk. Alas, the appendix lists no mention of bald eagles in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. I d' have loved to have shared the bald eagle above the Merrimack experience with Thoreau. |
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