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
How full
of reminiscence
is any fragrance.
Now I remember
the yellowbird when willows
begin to leaf out.
Now before the leaves
little wood warblers begin
to people the trees.
The woods now begin
to ring with the woodland note
of the oven-bird.
If man is thankful
for this serene and warm day,
much more the flowers.
A fit place for owls
thick woods over white spruce swamp
where bog laurel grows.
May 7, 2020
It is very hazy, as yesterday, and I smell smoke. May 7, 1860
The causeways being flooded, I have to think before I set out on my walk how I shall get back across the river. May 7, 1854
4.30 A.M. Heard a robin singing powerfully an hour ago, and song sparrows, and the cocks. Beginning, I may say, with robins, song sparrows, chip-birds, bluebirds, etc., I walk through larks, pewees, pigeon woodpeckers, chickadees, towhees, huckleberry-birds, wood thrushes, brown thrasher, jay, catbird, etc., etc. . . Hear the first partridge drum. The first oven-bird. May 7, 1852
The woods now begin to ring with the woodland note of the oven-bird. May 7, 1853
Over the edge of Miles’s mill-pond, now running off, a bumblebee goes humming over the dry brush. I think I saw one on the 5th also. May 7, 1856
The willows (Salix alba) where I keep my boat resound with the hum of bees and other insects. May 7, 1853
As I advance up the Assabet, the lively note of the yellowbird is borne from the willows. May 7, 1853
The first summer yellowbirds on the willow causeway. The birds come not singly, as the earliest, but all at once, i. e. many yellowbirds all over town. Now I remember the yellowbird comes when the willows begin to leave out. (And the small pewee on the willows also.) May 7, 1852The first small pewee sings now che-vet, or rather chirrups chevet, tche-vet — a rather delicate bird with a large head and two white bars on wings. May 7, 1852
Small pewee and, methinks, golden robin. May 7, 1857
I hear the loud cackling of the flicker about the aspen at the rock. May 7, 1853
A partridge flies up from within three or four feet of me with a loud whir, and betrays one cream-colored egg in a little hollow amid the leaves. May 7, 1855
A white-throated sparrow still (in woods). May 7, 1854
Hear the white throat sparrow’s peabody note in gardens. May 7, 1860
One or more little warblers in the woods this morning are new to the season, myrtlebirds among them. For now, before the leaves, they begin to people the trees. The first wave of summer from the south. May 7, 1852
I think I hear the redstart. May 7, 1856
In the meanwhile I hear, through this fresh, raw east wind, the te-a-lea of myrtle-birds from the woods across the-river. 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. May 7, 1856
A ruby-crested wren by the Cliff Brook, — a chubby little bird. Saw its ruby crest and heard its harsh note. May 7, 1854
Climbed to two crows’ nests . . . A ruby-crested wren is apparently attracted and eyes me. May 7, 1855
A crow’s nest near the top of a pitch pine about twenty feet high, just completed, betrayed by the birds’ cawing and alarm. [O]ne came and sat on a bare oak within forty feet, cawed, reconnoitred; and then both flew off to a distance, while I discovered and climbed to the nest. May 7, 1855
This is a very fit place for hawks and owls to dwell in, — the thick woods just over a white spruce swamp, in which the glaucous kalmia grows; the gray squirrels, partridges, hawks, and owls, all together. May 7, 1855
A . . . thrush which. . .betrayed himself by moving, like a large sparrow with ruffled feathers, and quirking his tail like a pewee, on a low branch. May 7, 1852
Did I not see a bank swallow fly by? May 7, 1858
That little early violet close to the ground in dry fields and hillsides, which only children's eyes detect, with buds showing purple but lying so low, as if stooping to rise, or rather its stems actually bent to hide its head amid the leaves, quite unpretending. May 7, 1852
That little early violet close to the ground in dry fields and hillsides, which only children's eyes detect, with buds showing purple but lying so low, as if stooping to rise, or rather its stems actually bent to hide its head amid the leaves, quite unpretending. May 7, 1852
See already a considerable patch of Viola pedata on the dry, bushy bank northeast of Tarbell’s. May 7, 1858
As I ascend Cliff Hill, the two leaves of the Solomon's-seal now spot the forest floor, pushed up amid the dry leaves. May 7, 1854
Flowers are self-registering indicators of fair weather. I remember how I waited for the hazel catkins to become relaxed and shed their pollen, but they delayed, till at last there came a pleasanter and warmer day and I took off my greatcoat while surveying in the woods, and then, when I went to dinner at noon, hazel catkins in full flower were dangling from the banks by the roadside and yellowed my clothes with their pollen. If man is thankful for the serene and warm day, much more are the flowers. May 7, 1854
Viburnum Lentago and nudum are both leafing. May 7, 1854
As I ascend Cliff Hill, the two leaves of the Solomon's-seal now spot the forest floor, pushed up amid the dry leaves. May 7, 1854
Flowers are self-registering indicators of fair weather. I remember how I waited for the hazel catkins to become relaxed and shed their pollen, but they delayed, till at last there came a pleasanter and warmer day and I took off my greatcoat while surveying in the woods, and then, when I went to dinner at noon, hazel catkins in full flower were dangling from the banks by the roadside and yellowed my clothes with their pollen. If man is thankful for the serene and warm day, much more are the flowers. May 7, 1854
Viburnum Lentago and nudum are both leafing. May 7, 1854
I can find no wild gooseberry in bloom yet. May 7, 1853
The wild gooseberry here and there along the edge of river . . . will open in a few days. May 7, 1858
With respect to leafing, the more conspicuous and forward trees and shrubs are the following, and nearly in this order, as I think, and these have formed small leaves:
- Gooseberry,
- aspens (not grandidentata),
- willows,
- young maples of all kinds,
- balm-of-Gilead (?),
- elder,
- meadow-sweet,
- back cherry,
- and is that Jersey tea on Island? or diervilla?
- ostrya,
- alder,
- white birch and the three others,
- Pyrus arbutifolia (?),
- apple,
- amelanchier,
- choke( ?)-cherry,
- dwarf ditto,
- wild red,
- Viburnum nudum ( ?) and Lentago,
- barberry.
The delicate cherry-like leaf, transparent red, of the shad-bush is now interesting, especially in the sun. May 7, 1853
I saw bluets whitening the fields yesterday a quarter of a mile off. They are to the sere brown grass what the shad-bush is now to the brown and bare sprout lands or young woods. May 7, 1860
A yellow-throated green frog in the river, by the hemlocks, — bright silk-green the fore part of the body, tiger-striped legs. The eyes of toads and frogs are remarkably bright and handsome, — oval pupils (?) or blacks and golden or coppery irides. May 7, 1852
The male yellow spotted and also wood turtle have very distinctly depressed sternums, but not so the male Emys picta that I have noticed. May 7, 1858
Find in the road beyond the Wheeler cottages a little round, evidently last year’s, painted turtle. Has no yellow spots, but already little red spots on the edges of the sides. The sternum a sort of orange or pinkish red. May 7, 1860
I saw bluets whitening the fields yesterday a quarter of a mile off. They are to the sere brown grass what the shad-bush is now to the brown and bare sprout lands or young woods. May 7, 1860
A yellow-throated green frog in the river, by the hemlocks, — bright silk-green the fore part of the body, tiger-striped legs. The eyes of toads and frogs are remarkably bright and handsome, — oval pupils (?) or blacks and golden or coppery irides. May 7, 1852
The male yellow spotted and also wood turtle have very distinctly depressed sternums, but not so the male Emys picta that I have noticed. May 7, 1858
Find in the road beyond the Wheeler cottages a little round, evidently last year’s, painted turtle. Has no yellow spots, but already little red spots on the edges of the sides. The sternum a sort of orange or pinkish red. May 7, 1860
For a week the road has been full of cattle going up country. May 7, 1856
The sun just disappearing as I reach the hilltop, and the horizon's edge appears with distinctness. As the twilight approaches, the mountains assume a deeper blue. May 7, 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, The Oven-bird.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Small Pewee
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Horizon
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Spring Leaf-Out
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Birds of May
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Summer Yellowbird
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Small Pewee
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the ruby-crowned or crested wren.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,,Willows on the Causeway
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Bees
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Shad-bush, Juneberry, or Service-berry
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, Solomon's Seal
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Hazel
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Pigeon Woodpecker
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 Myrtle-bird
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,The American Redstart
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Black and White Creeper
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau The Partridge
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Wood Turtle (Emys insculpta)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,The Yellow-Spotted Turtle (Emys guttata)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Painted Turtle (Emys picta)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Green Frog in Spring (Rana Fontinalis)
It is very hazy, as yesterday, and I smell smoke. See May 7, 1856 ("To-day and yesterday the sunlight is peculiarly yellow, on account of the smoky haze. I notice its peculiar yellowness, almost orange, even when, coming through a knot-hole in a dark room, it falls on the opposite wall. ")
Find in the road a little round painted turtle. Has no yellow spots, but already little red spots on the edges of the sides. The sternum a sort of orange or pinkish red. See June 15, 1854 ("A young painted tortoise on the surface of the water, as big as a quarter of a dollar, with a reddish or orange sternum . . . was red beneath."). See also May 7, 1858 ("The male yellow spotted and also wood turtle have very distinctly depressed sternums, but not so the male Emys picta that I have noticed.")
Find in the road a little round painted turtle. Has no yellow spots, but already little red spots on the edges of the sides. The sternum a sort of orange or pinkish red. See June 15, 1854 ("A young painted tortoise on the surface of the water, as big as a quarter of a dollar, with a reddish or orange sternum . . . was red beneath."). See also May 7, 1858 ("The male yellow spotted and also wood turtle have very distinctly depressed sternums, but not so the male Emys picta that I have noticed.")
The willows (Salix alba) where I keep my boat resound with the hum of bees and other insects. See May 10, 1860 ("Salix alba flower in prime and resounding with the hum of bees on it. The sweet fragrance fills the air for a long distance.")
As I advance up the Assabet, the lively note of the yellowbird is borne from the willow. See May 7, 1852 ("The first summer yellowbirds on the willow causeway. The birds come not singly, as the earliest, but all at once, i. e. many yellowbirds all over town. Now I remember the yellowbird comes when the willows begin to leave out") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Summer Yellowbird
The first oven-bird./The woods now begin to ring with the woodland note of the oven-bird. ) See May 1, 1852 (" I think I heard an oven-bird just now, - wicher wicher whicher wich."); May 4, 1855 ("In cut woods a small thrush, with crown inclining to rufous, tail foxy, and edges of wings dark-ash; clear white beneath. I think the golden-crowned?"); May 16, 1858 ("A golden-crowned thrush hops quite near. It is quite small, about the size of the creeper, with the upper part of its breast thickly and distinctly pencilled with black, a tawny head; and utters now only a sharp cluck for a chip."); June 7, 1853 ("The oven-bird runs from her covered nest, so close to the ground under the lowest twigs and leaves, even the loose leaves on the ground, like a mouse, that I can not get a fair view of her. She does not fly at all. Is it to attract me, or partly to protect herself ? "); June 19, 1858 (" See an oven-bird's nest with two eggs and one young one just hatched. The bird flits out low, and is, I think, the same kind that I saw flit along the ground and trail her wings to lead me off day before yesterday") July 3, 1853 ("The oven-bird's nest in Laurel Glen is near the edge of an open pine wood, under a fallen pine twig and a heap of dry oak leaves. Within these, on the ground, is the nest, with a dome-like top and an arched entrance of the whole height and width on one side. Lined within with dry pine-needles"). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Oven-bird
Small pewee. See May 7, 1852 ("The first small pewee sings now che-vet, or rather chirrups chevet, tche-vet — a rather delicate bird with a large head and two white bars on wings.) Also note to May 3, 1855 ("Small pewee; tchevet, with a jerk of the head.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,the “Small Pewee"
Golden robin (?). See May 14, 1856 ("Air full of golden robins. Their loud clear note betrays them as soon as they arrive.”); May 13, 1855 (“[H]eard the golden robin, now that the elms are beginning to leaf . . .The gold robin, just come, is heard in all parts of the village. I see both male and female.”)
Warblers in the woods this morning which are new to the season . . . See May 28, 1855 ("I have seen within three or four days two or three new warblers “); May 15, 1860 ("Deciduous woods now swarm with migrating warblers, especially about swamps.”)
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. See May 6, 1855 ("The er er twe, ter ter twe, evergreen-forest note."); May 11, 1854 ("Hear the evergreen-forest note"); May 15, 1858 ("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 "); July 10 1854 ("Evergreen-forest note, I think, still.") and 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?”).
Hear the white throat sparrow’s peabody note in gardens. See May 7, 1854 ("A white-throated sparrow still (in woods)."). See also and compare April 19,1855 ("Hear the tull-lull of the white-throated sparrow in street”); May 3, 1859 (" Hear the te-e-e of a white-throat sparrow. "); May 4, 1855 ("See more white-throated sparrows than any other bird to-day in various parts of our walk, generally feeding in numbers on the ground in open dry fields and meadows next to woods, then flitting through the woods. Hear only that sharp, lisping chip from them."); May 6, 1859 ("Hear the tea-lee of the white-throat sparrow."). Note also June 21, 1858 ("What I call the myrtle-bird’s is the white-throat sparrow’s note") and see May 5, 1857 ('Hear the tull-lull of a myrtle-bird (very commonly heard for three or four days after"); May 6, 1858 ("I heard a myrtle-bird's tull-lull yesterday, and that somebody else heard it four or five days ago.")
A ruby-crested wren is apparently attracted. See note to April 20, 1859 ("My ruby-crowned or crested wren”).
I think I hear the redstart. See May 16, 1858 (“See and hear a redstart, the rhythm of whose strain is tse'-tse, tse'-tse, tse', emphasizing the last syllable of all and not ending with the common tsear”); May 17, 1856 (“At the Kalmia Swamp, see and hear the redstart, very lively and restless, flirting and spreading its reddish tail.”)
Did I not see a bank swallow fly by? See May 7, 1856 (“A hundred or more bank swallows at 2 P. M. (I suspect I have seen them for some time)”)
This is a very fit place for hawks and owls to dwell in. . . ; the gray squirrels, partridges, hawks, and owls, all together. See May 12, 1855 ("there deep in the woods ... where the partridge and the red-tailed hawk and the screech owl sit on their nests.”)
A white spruce swamp in which the glaucous kalmia grows. See January 9, 1855 ("Make a splendid discovery this afternoon. Walking through Holden’s white spruce swamp, I see peeping above the snow-crust some slender delicate evergreen shoots ..., the Kalmia glauca var. rosmarinifolia.")
Canada plum in full bloom. See May 5, 1855 ("Canada plum and cultivated cherry and Missouri currant look as if they would bloom to-morrow.”); May 10, 1855 ("Canada plum opens petals to-day and leafs. Domestic plum only leafs.”).
Did I not see a bank swallow fly by? See May 7, 1856 (“A hundred or more bank swallows at 2 P. M. (I suspect I have seen them for some time)”)
This is a very fit place for hawks and owls to dwell in. . . ; the gray squirrels, partridges, hawks, and owls, all together. See May 12, 1855 ("there deep in the woods ... where the partridge and the red-tailed hawk and the screech owl sit on their nests.”)
A white spruce swamp in which the glaucous kalmia grows. See January 9, 1855 ("Make a splendid discovery this afternoon. Walking through Holden’s white spruce swamp, I see peeping above the snow-crust some slender delicate evergreen shoots ..., the Kalmia glauca var. rosmarinifolia.")
Canada plum in full bloom. See May 5, 1855 ("Canada plum and cultivated cherry and Missouri currant look as if they would bloom to-morrow.”); May 10, 1855 ("Canada plum opens petals to-day and leafs. Domestic plum only leafs.”).
I can find no wild gooseberry in bloom yet. See May 7, 1858 ("The wild gooseberry here and there along the edge of river in front of Tarbell’s, l. . . will open in a few days.")
The Viola pedata with the large pale-blue flower is now quite common along warm sandy banks. See May 7, 1858 ("See already a considerable patch of Viola pedata on the dry, bushy bank northeast of Tarbell’s.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Violets
.I saw bluets whitening the fields yesterday a quarter of a mile off. See May 21, 1855 ("Bluets whiten the fields, and violets are now perhaps in prime.")
What the shad-bush is now. See May 6, 1860 ("The Amelanchier Botryapium in flower now spots the brown sprout-land hillside on the southeast side, across the pond, very interestingly. . . .They are the more interesting for coming thus between the fall of the oak leaves and the expanding of other shrubs and trees. Some of the larger, near at hand, are very light and elegant masses of white bloom. The white-fingered flower of the sprout-lands.").See also May 15, 1858("The shad-bush in bloom is now conspicuous, its white flags on all sides. Is it not the most massy and conspicuous of any wild plant now in bloom?")
For a week the road has been full of cattle going up country. See May 6, 1855 ("Road full of cattle going up country.”); May 8, 1854 ("I hear the voices of farmers driving their cows past to their up-country pastures now."); May 10, 1852 ("This Monday the streets are full of cattle being driven up-country, — cows and calves and colts.”)
.I saw bluets whitening the fields yesterday a quarter of a mile off. See May 21, 1855 ("Bluets whiten the fields, and violets are now perhaps in prime.")
What the shad-bush is now. See May 6, 1860 ("The Amelanchier Botryapium in flower now spots the brown sprout-land hillside on the southeast side, across the pond, very interestingly. . . .They are the more interesting for coming thus between the fall of the oak leaves and the expanding of other shrubs and trees. Some of the larger, near at hand, are very light and elegant masses of white bloom. The white-fingered flower of the sprout-lands.").See also May 15, 1858("The shad-bush in bloom is now conspicuous, its white flags on all sides. Is it not the most massy and conspicuous of any wild plant now in bloom?")
For a week the road has been full of cattle going up country. See May 6, 1855 ("Road full of cattle going up country.”); May 8, 1854 ("I hear the voices of farmers driving their cows past to their up-country pastures now."); May 10, 1852 ("This Monday the streets are full of cattle being driven up-country, — cows and calves and colts.”)
May 7, 2019
If you make the least correct
observation of nature this year,
you will have occasion to repeat it
with 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 sky
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 7
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality.”
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2022
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