The year is but a succession of days,
and I see that I could assign some office to each day
which, summed up, would be the history of the year.
Henry Thoreau, August 24, 1852
The willows
are now
suddenly a fresh
tender
light yellowish-green.
now in the evening sunshine
over the water.
May 6, 1852
Evening after rain
the air damp with the sweet scent
of expanding leaves
May 6, 1853
To the poet the
earth is a flower-garden
wherever he goes
or thinks.
May 6, 1858
May 6, 2017
Wednesday. A beautiful and warm day. May 6, 1857
The whole landscape is many shades greener for the rain, almost a blue green. May 6, 1853
The leafing of the trees has commenced, and the forms of some, accordingly, begin to be defined. May 6, 1853
The larch has grown a quarter of an inch or more, studded with green buds. May 6, 1853
Young red maples suddenly bursting into leaf are very conspicuous now in the woods, among the most prominent of all shrubs or trees. The sprouts are reddish. May 6, 1859
There are pretty large leaves on the young red maples (which have no flowers), disposed crosswise, as well as on the sugar maple, but not so with larger flowering maples. May 6, 1853
The maple-tops begin to look red now with the growing keys, at a distance, — crescents of red. May 6, 1853
The horse-chestnut and mountain-ash leafing. May 6, 1856
Those long spear-shaped buds of the viburnum have expanded into dark but handsome leaves rather early; probably Viburnum nudum. May 6, 1853.
The maple-tops begin to look red now with the growing keys, at a distance, — crescents of red. May 6, 1853
High blackberry has begun to leaf; say two days. May 6, 1855
The horse-chestnut and mountain-ash leafing. May 6, 1856
Gilead not leafing yet, but perhaps to-morrow? May 6, 1855.
The song of the robin heard at 4:30 P. M., this still and hazy day, sounds already vespertinal. May 6, 1860
Four large robin's eggs in an apple tree. May 6, 1853
A robin’s nest with two eggs, betrayed by peeping. May 6, 1855
A ground-bird's nest with eggs. May 6, 1853
See a song sparrow’s nest with four eggs in the side of a bank, or rather ditch. I commonly find the earliest ones in such sheltered and concealed places May 6, 1860
Is not that the true spring when the F. hyemalis and tree sparrows are with us singing in the cold mornings with the song sparrows, and ducks and gulls are about? May 6, 1854
Hear the first warbling vireo this morning on
the elms. This almost makes a summer. May 6, 1852
Hear probably a yellow-throated vireo in the woods. May 6, 1860
Hear yellow-throat vireo, and
probably some new warblers. May 6, 1859
A creeper (black and white) yesterday May 6, 1860
I heard a myrtle-bird's tull-lull yesterday. and that somebody else heard it four or five days ago. May 6, 1858
Myrtle-birds very numerous just beyond Second Division. They sing like an instrument, teee teee te, t t t, t t t, on very various keys . . . Many white-throated sparrows there. May 6, 1855
Hear the tea-lee of the white-throat sparrow. May 6, 1859
The note of the pine warbler, which sounded so warm in March, sounds equally cool now. May 6, 1860
Hear at a distance a ruby(?)-crowned wren, so robin-like and spirited. After see one within ten or fifteen feet. Dark bill and legs, apparently dark olivaceous ashy head, a little whitish before and behind the full black eyes, ash breast, olive-yellow on primaries, with a white bar, dark tail and ends of wings, white belly and vent. Did not notice vermilion spot on hindhead. It darts off from apple tree for insects like a pewee, and returns to within ten feet of me as if curious. I think this the only Regulus I have ever seen. May 6, 1855
While at work I hear the bobolink and, methinks, peetweet along the brook. May 6, 1857
Hear the loud echoing note of the peet-weet-weet-weet-weet. May 6, 1853
A green bittern, a gawky bird. May 6, 1852
Salix alba opened yesterday. May 6, 1855
The Salix rostrata staminate flowers are of very peculiar yellow, — a bright, what you might call yellow yellow. May 6, 1858
Equisetum sylvaticum in front of Hosmer's Gorge. May 6, 1853
Equisetum sylvaticum a day or two on the ditch bank there. May 6, 1856
Viola cucullata at John Hosmer's ditch by Clamshell Hill. May 6, 1853
Equisetum sylvaticum a day or two on the ditch bank there. May 6, 1856
The first columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis) to-day, on Conantum. May 6, 1852
The first Viola blanda (sweet-scented white), in the moist ground by this spring. May 6, 1852
Viola lanceolata, yesterday at least. May 6, 1855
Beyond Clamshell, some white Viola ovata, some with a faint bluish tinge. May 6, 1855
Viola pedata begins to be common about white pine woods there. May 6, 1859.
As I go down the warm sandy path in the gully behind J. P. Brown’s, I see quite a number of Viola pedata May 6, 1860
Epigæa in full bloom. May 6, 1855
As I return over the bridge, shadflies very numerous. Many insects now in the evening sunshine, especially over the water. May 6, 1852
On the shore of the mill-pond, I saw remarkable swarms of that little fuzzy gnat (Tipulidae). . . collected in the hollows in the meadow, . . all in motion but resting one upon another, to the depth, as I found by measurement with a stick, of more than an inch, — a living mass of insect life. There were a hundred of these basins full of them, and I then discovered that what I had mistaken for some black dye on the wet shore was the bodies of those that were drowned and washed up, blackening the shore in patches. May 6, 1859.
The er er twe, ter ter twe, evergreen-forest note . . . .Is it black throated green? See May 7, 1856 ("I hear the evergreen-forest note close by; and hear and see many myrtle-birds, at the same time that I hear what I have called the black and white creeper’s note. Have I ever confounded them?”); May 11, 1854("Hear the evergreen-forest note"); June 1, 1854 ("Hear my evergreen-forest note, sounding rather raspingly as usual, where there are large oaks and pines mingled. It is very difficult to discover now that the leaves are grown, as it frequents the tops of the trees. But I get a glimpse of its black throat and, I think, yellow head "); May 30, 1855 ("In the thick of the wood between railroad and Turnpike, hear the evergreen forest note, and see probably the bird,-- black throat, greenish-yellow or yellowish-green head and back, light-slate (?) wings with two white bars. Is it not the black-throated green warbler?”); July 10 1854 ("Evergreen-forest note, I think, still.")
The most common frog that I get sight of along
the brooks and ditches this afternoon, and indeed for some weeks in similar
localities and even in some parts of the river shore, is what I have called the
young R. pipiens, with commonly a dull-green head and sides of head,
sometimes bright green, and back dusky-spotted. Can this be the bull frog? Is
it not the fontinalis with less bright green and a white throat?
Sometimes it is yellow-throated. May 6, 1858
I see a Rana
sylvatica by a ditch in Stow’s meadow, fifteen rods from the (Trillium)
Wood. May 6, 1858
I went to the edge of the river to
hear the frogs. It was a warm and moist, rather foggy evening, and the air full
of the ring of the toad, the peep of the hylodes, and the low growling croak or
stertoration of the Rana palustris. . . . There was a universal snoring
of the R. palustris all up and down the river on each side. .. probably
it began in earnest last evening on the river. . . .. In the mornings now, I
hear no R. palustris and no hylodes, but a few toads still, but now, at
night, all ring together, the toads ringing through the day, the hylodes
beginning in earnest toward night and the palustris at evening. May 6, 1858
As I walk through the village at evening, when the air is still damp after the rainy morning, I perceive and am exhilarated by the sweet scent of expanding leaves. May 6, 1853.
To the poet the earth is a flower-garden wherever he goes, or thinks. May 6, 1858
Crossing that first Conantum field, I perceive a peculiar fragrance in the air . . . like that of vernal flowers or of expanding buds. The ground is covered with the mouse-ear in full bloom, and it may be that in part. It is a temperate southwest breeze, and this is a scent as of willows (flowers and leafets), bluets, violets, shad-bush, mouse-ear etc., combined . . . very perceptible. May 6, 1859
All that a man has to say or do that can possibly concern mankind, is in some shape or other to tell the story of his love, — to sing. May 6, 1854
*****
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The world can never be more beautiful than now.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Spring Leaf-Out
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Red Maple
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Larch in Spring
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Viburnum lentago
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Violets
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Epigaea
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the ruby-crowned or crested wren.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Song Sparrow (Fringilla melodia)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The White-throated Sparrow.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Robins in Spring
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Pine Warbler
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Myrtle-bird
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Black and White Creeper
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Bobolink
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Fuzzy Gnat
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Insect Hatches in Spring
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The first frogs to begin calling
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Ring of Toads
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Green Frog in Spring (Rana Fontinalis)
The er er twe, ter ter twe, evergreen-forest note . . . .Is it black throated green? See May 7, 1856 ("I hear the evergreen-forest note close by; and hear and see many myrtle-birds, at the same time that I hear what I have called the black and white creeper’s note. Have I ever confounded them?”); May 11, 1854("Hear the evergreen-forest note"); June 1, 1854 ("Hear my evergreen-forest note, sounding rather raspingly as usual, where there are large oaks and pines mingled. It is very difficult to discover now that the leaves are grown, as it frequents the tops of the trees. But I get a glimpse of its black throat and, I think, yellow head "); May 30, 1855 ("In the thick of the wood between railroad and Turnpike, hear the evergreen forest note, and see probably the bird,-- black throat, greenish-yellow or yellowish-green head and back, light-slate (?) wings with two white bars. Is it not the black-throated green warbler?”); July 10 1854 ("Evergreen-forest note, I think, still.")
Dark bill and legs, apparently dark olivaceous ashy head, a little whitish before and behind the full black eyes, ash breast, olive-yellow on primaries, with a white bar, dark tail and ends of wings, white belly and vent. Compare J. J. Audubon (“Bill black, yellow at the base of the lower, and on the edges of the upper mandible. Iris light brown. Feet yellowish-brown, the under parts yellow. The general colour of the upper parts is dull olivaceous ”) See note to April 20, 1859 ("My ruby-crowned or crested wren”)
I think this the only Regulus I have ever seen. See May 7, 1854 ("This was the same I have called golden-crowned . . . except that I saw its ruby crest. I didn't see the crest of the golden-crowned, . . Have I seen the two?); May 11, 1854 (" I am in a little doubt about the wrens . . . whether I have seen more than one. All that makes me doubt is that I saw a ruby, or perhaps it might be called fiery, crest on the last — not golden.”); December 25, 1859 ("I can see a brilliant crown even . . . when I can detect no other part. It is evidently the golden-crested wren, which I have not made out before.”);
Equisetum sylvaticum a day or two, See May 6, 1855 ("Equisetum sylvaticum, probably yesterday or day before.”)
While at work I hear the bobolink. See May 10, 1853 (“All at once a strain that sounds like old times and recalls a hundred associations. Not at once do I remember that a year has elapsed since I heard it, and then the idea of the bobolink is formed in my mind.”); May 16, 1854 ("The earth is all fragrant as one flower. And bobolinks tinkle in the air. Nature now is perfectly genial to man.”); and note to May 12, 1856 (“We hear the first bobolink. . . How much life the note of the bobolink imparts to the meadow! ”)
Sugar maple by Dr. Barrett’s. See May 5, 1855 (“The sugar maples on the Common have just begun to show their stamens peeping out of the bud, but that by Dr. Barrett’s has them an inch and a half long or more.”); May 6, 1855 (“The young sugar maples leafing are more conspicuous now than any maples.”); May 8, 1857 (“The sugar maple at Barrett's is now in full bloom.”)
The Salix rostrata staminate flowers are of very peculiar yellow, — a bright, what you might call yellow yellow. See May 5, 1857 ("Staminate Salix rostrata, possibly yesterday.”); June 6, 1856 ("That willow, male and female, opposite to Trillium Woods on the railroad, I find to be the Salix rostrata, or long-beaked willow, one of the ochre-flowered . . . willows . . .”); May 2, 1859 (“I see on the Salix rostrata by railroad many honey bees laden with large and peculiarly orange-colored pellets of its pollen.”)
A boy brings me to-day an Attacus Cecropia moth . . . considerably larger than mine. See June 2, 1855 (“I gave it ether and so saved it in a perfect state. As it lies, not spread to the utmost, it is five and nine tenths inches by two and a quarter.”)
I heard a myrtle-bird's tull-lull yesterday, and that somebody else heard it four or five days ago. See May 5, 1857 (“Hear the tull-lull of a myrtle-bird (very commonly heard for three or four days after).”); May 6, 1855 (“Myrtle-birds very numerous just beyond Second Division. They sing like an instrument, teee teee te, t t t, t t t, on very various keys . . . Many white-throated sparrows there.”
In all cases in which I have noticed frogs coupled this year, — the sylvatica, halecina, and palustris, - the female has been considerably the largest. . .The young R. pipiens, with commonly a dull-green head and sides of head, sometimes bright green, and back dusky-spotted. Can this be the bull frog? Is it not the fontinalis with less bright green and a white throat? Sometimes it is yellow-throated. I saw lately in the river a full-grown bullfrog, with, I think, a white throat. . . .the air full of the ring of the toad, the peep of the hylodes, and the low growling croak or stertoration of the Rana palustris. . . .The rhythm of it is like that of the toads’ ring, but not the sound. This is considerably like that of the tree-toad. See The 10 frog species in Massachusetts. (Mass Audubon) (HDT’s halecina is the northern leopard frog, his fontinalis is the green frog, his hylodes the peeper):
American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)
I see quite a number of Viola pedata./ Viola pedata begins to be common about white pine woods there. See May 10, 1858 ("How much expression there is in the Viola pedata! I do not know on the whole but it is the handsomest of them all, it is so large and grows in such large masses.") See also May 5, 1853 ("The Emerson children found blue and white violets May 1st at Hubbard's Close, probably Viola ovata and blanda; but I have not been able to find any yet."); May 5, 1859 ("V. pedata and lanceolata rarer yet, or not seen.") May 6, 1852 (“The first Viola blanda (sweet-scented white), in the moist ground by this spring.”); May 6, 1855 ("Viola lanceolata, yesterday at least. . . .Two or three rods this side of John Hosmer’s pitch pines, beyond Clamshell, some white Viola ovata, some with a faint bluish tinge. ")// Also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Violets
I saw remarkable swarms of that little fuzzy gnat See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Fuzzy Gnat
Young red maples suddenly bursting into leaf are very conspicuous now in the woods. Compare May 6, 1855 ("The young sugar maples leafing are more conspicuous now than any maples.”) . See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Spring Leaf-Out
Hear yellow-throat vireo, and probably some new warblers. See May 6, 1852 ("Hear the first warbling vireo this morning on the elms. This almost makes a summer.”); May 7, 1852 ("One or more little warblers in the woods this morning are new to the season, . . .The first wave of summer from the south.”)
The note of the pine warbler, which sounded so warm in March, sounds equally cool now. See April 2, 1853 ("Hear and see what I call the pine warbler, --vetter vetter vetter vetter vet, -- the cool woodland sound. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Pine Warbler
Hear probably a yellow-throated vireo in the woods. See May 6, 1859 ("Hear yellow-throat vireo, and probably some new warblers."). See also 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.")
A creeper (black and white) yesterday. See May 11, 1856 ("The black and white creeper also is descending the oaks, etc., and uttering from time to time his seeser seeser seeser. What a rich, strong striped blue-black and white bird.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Black and White Creeper
A goldfinch apparently not quite in summer dress; with a dark-brown, not black, front. See April 7, 1855 ("They are merely olivaceous above, dark about the base of the bill, but bright lemon-yellow in a semicircle on the breast; black wings and tails, with white bar on wings and white vanes to tail. I never saw them here so early before; or probably one or two olivaceous birds I have seen and heard of other years were this.")
See a song sparrow’s nest with four eggs in the side of a bank, or rather ditch. I commonly find the earliest ones in such sheltered and concealed places. See April 30, 1858 ("I find a Fringilla melodia nest with five eggs.. . . perfectly sheltered under the shelving turf and grass on the brink of a ditch. ") See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Song Sparrow (Fringilla melodia)
In the Major Heywood path the The Luzula campestris is apparently in prime. Oryzopsis grass well out. See May 1 1859 ("Luzula campestris. Also the Oryzopsis Canadensis by the Major Heywood path-side . . . six inches high or more, with fine bristle-like leaves.").
The Amelanchier Botryapium in flower now spots the brown sprout-land hillside. See May 2, 1855 ("Amelanchier Botryapium yesterday leafed."); May 5, 1860 ("Amelanchier Botryapiumflower in prime."); May 8, 1854 ("The early Amelanchier Botryapium overhangs the rocks and grows in the shelves, with its loose, open-flowered racemes, curving downward, of narrow-petalled white flowers, red on the back and innocently cherry-scented"); May 10, 1854 ("The shad-bush in blossom is the first to show like a fruit tree on the hill sides . . .before even its own leaves are much expanded. ") May 12, 1855 ("I now begin to distinguish where at a distance the Amelanchier Botryapium, with its white against the russet, is waving in the wind."); May 17, 1853 (“The petals have already fallen from the Amelanchier Botryapium, and young berries are plainly forming.”)
Maple keys an inch and a half long. See May 1, 1860 ("The sugar maple keys (or buds?) hang down one inch, quite.")
There are pretty large leaves on the young red maples.The maple-tops begin to look red now with the growing keys. See May 9, 1855 ("A large red maple just begun to leaf - its keys an inch and a half long.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Red Maple
Those long spear-shaped buds of the viburnum have expanded into dark but handsome leaves rather early. See April 30, 1859 ("The viburnum buds are so large and long, like a spear-head, that they are conspicuous the moment their two leafets diverge and they are lit up by the sun. They unfold their wings like insects and arriving warblers.")
Four large robin's eggs in an apple tree. See May 6. 1855 (''A robin’s nest with two eggs, betrayed by peeping.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Robins in
Spring
a peculiar fragrance in the air . See April 21, 1854 ("As I go up the hill beyond the brook, while the hylodes are heard behind, I perceive the faintest possible flower-like scent as from the earth, reminding me of anemonies and houstonias.”); May 4, 1855 ("Near Jenny Dugan’s, perceive that unaccountable fugacious fragrance, as of all flowers, bursting forth in air, not near a meadow, which perhaps I first perceived on May 1st. It is the general fragrance of the year. I am almost afraid I shall trace it to some particular plant. It surpasses all particular fragrances. I am not sitting near any flower that I can perceive."); May 16, 1854 ("The earth is all fragrant as one flower. And bobolinks tinkle in the air. Nature now is perfectly genial to man.”); May 16, 1852 (“The whole earth is fragrant as a bouquet held to your nose. A fine, delicious fragrance, which will come to the senses only when it will.”); June 5, 1853 (“The heavens and the earth are one flower. “).
I perceive and am exhilarated by the sweet scent of expanding leaves. See May 16, 1854 ("A sweet scent fills the air from the expanding leafets. The earth is all fragrant as one flower."); May 18, 1851 ("There is a peculiar freshness about the landscape; you scent the fragrance of new leaves,")
May 6, 2017
If you make the least correctobservation of nature this year,you will have occasion to repeat itwith illustrations the next,and the season and life itself is prolonged.A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,, I love you like I love the skyA Book of the Seasons, by Henry ThoreauA Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 6"A book, each page written in its own season,out-of-doors, in its own locality.”~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2022
https://tinyurl.com/HDT6May
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