Bird Notes Afield

"At first, the peacock, with his gorgeous train, demands our attention; but, like most of the gaudy birds, his notes are grating and shocking to the ear: the yelling of cats, and the braying of an ass, are not more disgustful." Letter XLIII. Sept 9, 1778. The Natural History of Selborne . My friend living on Oakland hills in a neighborhood with yard-raised peafowl would absolutely agree with this description by Gilbert White . After celebrating Henry David Thoreau's 200th birthday several days ago , I want to mark another occasion today: the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death. Austen didn't mention birds much in her novels other than game birds for hunting and partridge for table. Yet  Pride and Prejudice has been associated with the bird peacock because of beautiful cover designs . Jane Austen lived only a few miles from Selborne--there goes the connection to Gilbert White; therefore the peacock quote. That peacock graces Austen's book cove

22 years ago I made my pilgrimage to Concord, Massachusetts as the leaves turned color. Not only was Walden Pond much bigger than I had imagined, but I was shocked by a bathhouse on the shore, having envisioned a pond in the wilderness. It took me quite some time to circle the lake by foot. I don’t remember seeing a loon there. Several years later one summer in northern Maine, I heard my first laughter of a Common Loon. The moment I heard it I knew what it was, thanks to the description by Henry David Thoreau . “As I was paddling along the north shore one very calm October afternoon, for such days especially they settled down on to the lakes, like the milkweed down, having looked in vain over the pond for a loon, suddenly one…set up his wild laugh and betrayed himself….His usual note was the demoniac laughter, yet somewhat like that of a water-fowl; but occasionally, when he had balked me most successfully, and come up a long way off, he uttered a long-drawn unearthly howl, probably