May 28
P.M. —To Middle Conantum Cliff.
Yesterday left my boat at the willow opposite this Cliff, the wind northwest. Now it is southeast, and I can sail back.
May 28, 2025
Our quince open this morning, possibly yesterday; and some others, I believe, much earlier.
Do I not hear a short snappish, rasping note from a yellow-throat vireo?
I see a tanager, the most brilliant and tropical-looking bird we have, bright-scarlet with black wings, the scarlet appearing on the rump again between wing-tips. He brings heat, or heat him. A remarkable contrast with the green pines. At this distance he has the aspect and manners of a parrot, with a fullness about the head and throat and beak, indolently inspecting the limbs and twigs —leaning over to it — and sitting still a long time. The female, too, is a neat and handsome bird, with the same indolent ways, but very differently colored from the male; all yellow below with merely dusky wings, and a sort of clay(?)-color on back.
While we sit by the path in the depths of the woods three quarters of a mile beyond Hayden’s, confessing the influence of almost the first summer warmth, the wood thrush sings steadily for half an hour, now at 2.30 P.M., amid the pines, — loud and clear and sweet. While other birds are warbling betweenwhiles and catching their prey, he alone appears to make a business of singing, like a true minstrel.
Is that one which I see at last in the path above dusky olive-brown becoming ferruginous on base of tail, eye not very prominent with a white line around it, some dark-colored feathers apparently on outer wing-coverts, very light colored legs, with dashes on breast which I do not see clearly? I should say that it had not the large black eye of the hermit thrush, and I cannot see the yellowish spot on the wings; yet it may have been this.
I find the feathers apparently of a brown thrasher in the path, plucked since we passed here last night. You can generally find all the tail and quill feathers in such a case.
The apple bloom is very rich now.
Fever-bush shoots are now two inches long; say begin to leaf just before late willow. Black ash shoots three inches long; say with late willow. White pine and pitch pine shoots from two to five inches long.
Rubus triflorus at Miles Swamp will apparently open to-morrow.
Some krigia done some days. Silene Antirrhina. Barberry open (probably two or more days at Lee’s).
C. says he has seen a green snake.
Examined my two yellowbirds’ nests of the 25th. Both are destroyed, —pulled down and torn to pieces probably by some bird, — though they but just begun to lay.
C. says he has seen a green snake.
Examined my two yellowbirds’ nests of the 25th. Both are destroyed, —pulled down and torn to pieces probably by some bird, — though they but just begun to lay.
Large yellow and black butterfly.
The leaves of kalmiana lily obvious.
I have seen within three or four days two or three new warblers which I have not identified; one to-day, in the woods, all pure white beneath, with a full breast, and greenish-olive-yellow (?) above, with a duskier head and a slight crest muscicapa-like, on pines, etc., high; very small.(Perhaps young and female redstarts.) Also one all lemon-yellow beneath, except whitish vent, and apparently bluish above.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 28, 1855
I see a tanager . . . A remarkable contrast with the green pines. See May 23, 1853 ("How he enhances the wildness and wealth of the woods! That contrast of a red bird with the green pines and the blue sky!”); . May 29, 1853 (" tt appears as if he loved to contrast himself with the green of the forest"); May 24, 1860 ("You can hardly believe that a living creature can wear such colors”) See also A Book of the Seasons, ,by Henry Thoreau, the Scarlet Tanager
The wood thrush . . . alone appears to make a business of singing, like a true minstrel. May 17, 1853 ("The wood thrush has sung for some time. He touches a depth in me which no other bird's song does. "); June 22, 1853 (“This is the only bird whose note affects me like music, affects the flow and tenor of my thought, my fancy and imagination.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Wood Thrush
Is that one which I see . . . eye not very prominent with a white line around it, . . . with dashes on breast which I do not see clearly? See May 22, 1852 ("The female (and male?) wood thrush spotted the whole length of belly; the hermit thrush not so”) and note to April 24, 1856 ("[S]ee a brown bird flit, and behold my hermit thrush, with one companion, flitting silently through the birches. I saw the fox-color on his tail-coverts, as well as the brown streaks on the breast. ”).
Large yellow and black butterfly. See June 3, 1859 ("A large yellow butterfly (somewhat Harris Papilio Asterias like but not black-winged) three and a half to four inches in expanse. Pale-yellow, the front wings crossed by three or four black bars; rear, or outer edge, of all wings widely bordered with black, and some yellow behind it; a short black tail to each hind one, with two blue spots in front of two red-brown ones on the tail. (P. Turnus ?)"); June 14, 1860 ("I see near at hand two of those large yellow (and black) butterflies which I have probably seen nearly a month . They rest on the mud near a brook. Two and three quarters to three inches in alar extent; yellow with a broad black border, outside of which a row of small yellow spots; three or four black marks transversely to the fore wings, and two fine lines parallel with the body on the hinder (?) wings; a small and slender swallow tail with reddish brown and blue at the tail; body black above and yellow along the sides. (C. says it is the Papilio Turnus of Say.)"
The leaves of kalmiana lily obvious.
I have seen within three or four days two or three new warblers which I have not identified; one to-day, in the woods, all pure white beneath, with a full breast, and greenish-olive-yellow (?) above, with a duskier head and a slight crest muscicapa-like, on pines, etc., high; very small.(Perhaps young and female redstarts.) Also one all lemon-yellow beneath, except whitish vent, and apparently bluish above.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 28, 1855
Yesterday left my boat at the willow opposite this Cliff, the wind northwest. Now it is southeast, and I can sail back. See August 12, 1854 ("To Conantum by boat. To-day there is an uncommonly strong wind, against which I row, yet in shirt-sleeves, trusting to sail back. It is southwest.); August 24, 1854 ("A strong wind from the south-southwest, which I expect will waft me back.")
Do I not hear a short snappish, rasping note from a yellow-throat vireo? See May 11, 1855 ("Hear and see yellow-throat vireo. "); May 27, 1854 ("I see and hear the yellow-throated vireo. It is somewhat similar (its strain) to that of the red-eye, prelia pre-li-ay, with longer intervals. . .It flits about in the tops of the trees");. May 29, 1855 ("Also the yellow-throated vireo — its head and shoulders as well as throat yellow (apparently olive-yellow above), and its strain but little varied and short, not continuous. It has dusky legs and two very distinct white bars on wings (the male)"); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Yellow-throated Vireo
I see a tanager . . . A remarkable contrast with the green pines. See May 23, 1853 ("How he enhances the wildness and wealth of the woods! That contrast of a red bird with the green pines and the blue sky!”); . May 29, 1853 (" tt appears as if he loved to contrast himself with the green of the forest"); May 24, 1860 ("You can hardly believe that a living creature can wear such colors”) See also A Book of the Seasons, ,by Henry Thoreau, the Scarlet Tanager
The wood thrush . . . alone appears to make a business of singing, like a true minstrel. May 17, 1853 ("The wood thrush has sung for some time. He touches a depth in me which no other bird's song does. "); June 22, 1853 (“This is the only bird whose note affects me like music, affects the flow and tenor of my thought, my fancy and imagination.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Wood Thrush
Is that one which I see . . . eye not very prominent with a white line around it, . . . with dashes on breast which I do not see clearly? See May 22, 1852 ("The female (and male?) wood thrush spotted the whole length of belly; the hermit thrush not so”) and note to April 24, 1856 ("[S]ee a brown bird flit, and behold my hermit thrush, with one companion, flitting silently through the birches. I saw the fox-color on his tail-coverts, as well as the brown streaks on the breast. ”).
The apple bloom is very rich now. See May 27, 1857 ("This is blossom week, beginning last Sunday (the 24th).") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Apple Blossom Time
Rubus triflorus at Miles Swamp will apparently open to-morrow. See May 21, 1856 ("Rubus triflorus abundantly out at the Saw Mill Brook"); May 29, 1858 ("Rubus triflorus, well out, at Calla Swamp, how long?"); See also A Book of the Seasons, A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Raspberry
C. says he has seen a green snake. See May 9, 1852 ("See a green snake, twenty or more inches long, on a bush, hanging over a twig with its head held forward six inches into the air, without support and motionless.”); May 19, 1860 (“See a green snake, a very vivid yellow green, of the same color with the tender foliage at present, and as if his colors had been heightened by the rain.”)
Large yellow and black butterfly. See June 3, 1859 ("A large yellow butterfly (somewhat Harris Papilio Asterias like but not black-winged) three and a half to four inches in expanse. Pale-yellow, the front wings crossed by three or four black bars; rear, or outer edge, of all wings widely bordered with black, and some yellow behind it; a short black tail to each hind one, with two blue spots in front of two red-brown ones on the tail. (P. Turnus ?)"); June 14, 1860 ("I see near at hand two of those large yellow (and black) butterflies which I have probably seen nearly a month . They rest on the mud near a brook. Two and three quarters to three inches in alar extent; yellow with a broad black border, outside of which a row of small yellow spots; three or four black marks transversely to the fore wings, and two fine lines parallel with the body on the hinder (?) wings; a small and slender swallow tail with reddish brown and blue at the tail; body black above and yellow along the sides. (C. says it is the Papilio Turnus of Say.)"
Two or three new warblers which I have not identified. See April 19, 1854 ("Within a few days the warblers have begun to come. They are of every hue. Nature made them to show her colors with. There are as many as there are colors and shades. "); May 6, 1859 ("Hear yellow-throat vireo, and probably some new warblers"); .May 15, 1860 ("Deciduous woods now swarm with migrating warblers, especially about swamps”); May 23, 1857 ("This is the time and place to hear the new-arriving warblers, the first fine days after the May storm. When the leaves generally are just fairly expanding. . . these birds are flitting about in the tree-tops like gnats, catching the insects about the expanding leaf-buds")
May 28. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 28
We sit by the path
in the depths of the woods while
now the wood thrush sings.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, While we sit by the path in the depths of the woods
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025
https://tinyurl.com/hdt-550528
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