Happy Groundhog Day

As I did last year, I want to honor Groundhog Day with a quotation from Thoreau’s Journal. Although Thoreau wrote more about some other creatures (for instance, the muskrat) than he did about the woodchuck or groundhog, his affection for this creature is obvious.

June 21, 1854
Here, in the midst of extensive sprout-lands, are numerous open hollows more or less connected, where for some reason* the wood does not spring up, — and I am glad of it, — filled with a fine wiry grass, with the panicled andromeda, which loves dry places, now in blossom around the edges, and small black cherries and sand cherries straggling down into them. The woodchuck loves such places and now wabbles off with a peculiar loud squeak like the sharp bark of a red squirrel, then stands erect at the entrance of his hole, ready to dive into it as soon as you approach. As wild and strange a place as you might find in the unexplored West or East.

*Maybe frosts.

Once again, groundhog fans should visit my friend Lucy’s pages (with more quotations from Thoreau), including her tribute to one charming but unfortunate young woodchuck.