Saturday, April 12, 2008

Thoreau on Wood Trush

Here's what Thoreau (and Thoreau's Walden, as you know, is one of the most influential books in my life), had to say about the beautiful song of a wood thrush - a relative of everyone's beloved bluebird and the most known harbinger of spring - American robin :
The thrush alone declares the immortal wealth and vigor that is in the forest. ... Whenever a man hears it he is young, and Nature is in her spring; whenever he hears it, it is a new world and a free country, and the gates of heaven are not shut against him.
Here's the song in question. I think I might have heard this song today and also before, but I am not 100% sure. Sometimes the actual birdsong sounds different from what you get on the recordings. It is supposed to be found around here this time a year, I think.

EDIT: It wasn't a wood thrush after all, but a red-winged blackbird, which sound vague similar if you don't know the difference. Sigh!

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