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 fertile flower
of the butternut distinct
with crimson stigmas.
Kingbird's nest with eggs
in a fork of a willow
above the stone bridge.
Spider-nest swarming
with a mass of a thousand
spiders lately hatched.
Clearer days less haze
and more sparkling water.
It is early June.
Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet. June 8, 1850
In early June, methinks, as now, we have clearer days, less haze, more or less breeze, — especially after rain, — and more sparkling water than before. June 8, 1860
The leaves generally are almost fully expanded, i. e. some of each tree. June 8, 1860
As there is more shade in the woods, so there is more shade in the sky, i. e. dark or heavy clouds contrasted with the bright sky, — not the gray clouds of spring. June 8, 1860
June-grass just begun to bloom in the village. June 8, 1860
This is truly June when you begin to see brakes (dark green) fully expanded in the wood-paths. June 8, 1860
Here it is the 8th of June, and the grass is growing apace. In the front yards of the village they are already beginning to cut it. June 8, 1850
As there is more shade in the woods, so there is more shade in the sky, i. e. dark or heavy clouds contrasted with the bright sky, — not the gray clouds of spring. June 8, 1860
June-grass just begun to bloom in the village. June 8, 1860
This is truly June when you begin to see brakes (dark green) fully expanded in the wood-paths. June 8, 1860
Here it is the 8th of June, and the grass is growing apace. In the front yards of the village they are already beginning to cut it. June 8, 1850
In distant woods the partridge sits on her eggs, and at evening the frogs begin to dream and boys begin to bathe in the river and ponds. June 8, 1850
Not till June can the grass be said to be waving in the fields. When the frogs dream, and the grass waves, and the buttercups toss their heads, and the heat disposes to bathe in the ponds and streams then is summer begun. June 8, 1850
Not till June can the grass be said to be waving in the fields. When the frogs dream, and the grass waves, and the buttercups toss their heads, and the heat disposes to bathe in the ponds and streams then is summer begun. June 8, 1850
June 8, 2020
As I look at the mountains in the horizon, I am struck by the fact that they are all pyramidal — pyramids, more or less low — and have a peak. Why have the mountains usually a peak? June 8, 1860
We have had six days either rain-threatening or rainy, the last two somewhat rainy or mizzling. June 8, 1856
We have had six days either rain-threatening or rainy, the last two somewhat rainy or mizzling. June 8, 1856
Within a day or two has begun that season of summer when you see afternoon showers, maybe with thunder, or the threat of them, dark in the horizon, and are uncertain whether to venture far away or without an umbrella. June 8, 1860
These are summer showers, come with the heats of summer. June 8, 1860
River at 6 a. m. twelve and seven eighths inches above summer level. June 8, 1860
River at 7 p. m. fourteen and a half above summer level. June 8, 1860
Gentle, steady rain storm. June 8, 1854
Two Fringilla pusilla nests in my old potato-field, at the foot of little white pines each; made of dried grass lined with hair, snug in the sod. Four eggs to each; one lot nearly hatched; with reddish brown spots, especially toward larger end, but a. light opening quite at that end; smaller, slenderer, and less spotted than the song sparrow’s. The bird is ash side head, ferruginous above, mahogany bill and legs, two whitish bars. June 8, 1855
A jay’s nest with three young half fledged in a white pine, six feet high, by the Ingraham cellar, made of coarse sticks. June 8, 1855
A catbird’s nest on the peninsula of Goose Pond — four eggs — in a blueberry bush, four feet from ground, close to water; as usual of sticks, dry leaves, and bark lined with roots. June 8, 1855
What was that little nest on the ridge near by, made of fine grass lined with a few hairs and containing five small eggs (two hatched the 11th), nearly as broad as long, yet pointed, white with fine dull-brown spots especially on the large end—nearly hatched? The nest in the dry grass under a shrub, remarkably concealed. June 8, 1855
A kingbird's nest with three eggs, lined with some hair, in a fork — or against upright part — of a willow, just above near stone bridge. June 8, 1858
A kingbird’s nest on a black cherry, above Barbarea Shore. loosely constructed, with some long white rags dangling; one egg. June 8, 1856
Young robins in nest. June 8, 1854
I see red-wing blackbirds hatched. June 8, 1858
A tanager’s nest in the topmost forks of a pitch pine about fifteen feet high, by Thrush Alley; the nest very slight, apparently of pine needles, twigs, etc.; can see through it; bird on. June 8, 1855
Found in this walk, of nests, one tanager, two bay wing, one blue jay, one catbird, and [a Maryland yellow-throat.] June 8, 1855
See a painted turtle beginning to lay. She has merely scratched the ground a little, and moistened it very much. This must be to make it adherent. It is at the same time beginning to rain. June 8, 1859
I see many breams' nests made, and in one or two in which I look, I find, on taking out the stones and the gravel, the small yellowish ova about one twentieth of an inch in diameter . . .like some kind of gem adhering pretty firmly, and the bream is steadily poised over her treasures. June 8, 1858
In several places I see where dead suckers have been at last partly devoured by some animal, and their great bladders are seen floating off. June 8, 1858
From time to time each one descended to the water and touched it, or rested on it a second or two, sometimes several minutes. They were generally able to rise, but very often before it arose, or not being able to rise, it was seized by a fish. While some are flying down they are met by others coming up. The water was dimpled with the leaping fish. . . What a sudden surfeit the fishes must have! June 8, 1856
Is that small spiked rush from a few inches to a foot or more in height Eleocharis palustris? or tenuis? June 8, 1858
In early aster meadow and elsewhere common, along meadow-paths. June 8, 1858
Whiteweed is getting to be common. June 8, 1858
White actaea done there. June 8, 1857
Pulled up a yellow lily root, four feet long and branching, two and a half inches diameter.. . . Broken off, it floats. Great white rootlets put out all along it. June 8, 1856
I find no Andromeda racemosa in flower June 8, 1856
The three-leaved Solomon’s-seal has almost entirely done, while the two leaved is quite abundant. June 8, 1856
Stellaria longrfolia opposite Barbarea Shore not yet out. It is obviously different from what I call S. borealis, much more tall (one foot high) and upright, with branches ascending (not spreading) (the other grows in a dense mass at Corner Spring); leaves longer and more linear, and not at all ciliate like the other; stem much sharper-angled, almost winged; flower-buds more long and slender; and grows in high grass and is later. June 8, 1856
Carex polytrichoides grows at Well Meadow. June 8, 1860
Carex bromoides may have been out a fortnight at Well Meadow; and C. scabrata, say ten days. June 8, 1860
C. tenella (near the earliest cowslip) all in seed and much seed fallen and no sterile flower; say three weeks. June 8, 1860
C. intumescens, say five or six days (e. g., just south of earliest cowslip). June 8, 1860
That sedge which grows in the Fox Path Hollow (by the Andromeda Ponds), the coarser one, rather around the sides or slopes than at the very bottom, is a slender Carex siccata, almost all out of bloom, — all except that which is at the bottom of the hollow. June 8, 1860
Hoed potatoes first time two or three days ago; my corn to-day. June 8, 1860
High blueberry. June 8, 1855
You seek the early strawberries in any the most favorable exposure, June 8, 1860
All stagnant water is covered with the lint from the new leaves, — harmless to drink, — especially after rain. June 8, 1860
If you [take] a scarlet oak leaf and rub the under side on your coat-sleeve, it will not whiten it, but a white oak leaf will color it as with meal. June 8, 1860
The white oak leaves are especially downy, and lint your clothes. June 8, 1860.
What delicate fans are the great red oak leaves now just developed, so thin and of so tender a green! They hang loosely, flaccidly, down at the mercy of the wind, like a new-born butterfly or dragon-fly. June 8, 1860
There are two good-sized black walnuts at Cyrus Smith's, by wall, out apparently a day. . . . The fertile flower is probably not obvious yet. That of the butternut is now very distinct with its crimson stigmas. June 8, 1857
The Salix nigra is still in bloom. June 8, 1858
So vivacious is the willow, availing itself of every accident to spread along the river’s bank. The ice that strips it only disperses it the more widely. It never says die. June 8, 1856
May I be as vivacious as a willow. June 8, 1856
See lightning-bugs to-night. June 8, 1859
I found the white-pine-top full of staminate blossom buds not yet fully grown or expanded, with a rich red tint like a tree full of fruit, but I could find no pistillate blossom. See June 21, 1860 ("In the white pine it is a dense cluster of twenty or thirty little flowers about the base of this year's shoot.") June 25, 1852 (" I am too late for the white pine flowers. The cones are half an inch long and greenish, and the male flowers effete."); July 1, 1852 ("The path by the wood-side is red with the effete staminiferous flowers of the white pine. ") See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The White Pines
The Rosa nitida bud which I plucked yesterday has blossomed to-day. See June 15, 1853 (“Here are many wild roses northeast of Trillium Woods. It is the pride of June. I bring home the buds ready to expand, put them in a pitcher of water, and the next morning they open and fill my chamber with fragrance.”) [Rosa nitida (Shining rose) is a wild rose found in bogs, swamps, and wet thickets, which reaches the southern edge of its range in southern New England. It produces bright pink flowers in June and July that are 2 inches across,The stems are covered in many slender, straight prickles (unlike a similar wetland rose, R. palustris). The leaves are lustrous on both sides. ~GoBotany]
Sidesaddle, apparently to-morrow. - - The sidesaddle-flower is out, — how long? See note to June 12, 1856 (''Sidesaddle flower numerously out now.") [Sarracenia purpurea, also known as the purple pitcherplant or northern pitcher plant, the only pitcherplant native to New England. ]
A kingbird's nest. See June 3, 1854 ("A kingbird's nest in a fork of a black willow"); J June 3, 1854 ("A kingbird's nest in a fork of a black willow. "); June 6, 1857 ("A kingbird's nest, with two of its large handsome eggs, very loosely set over the fork of a horizontal willow by river, with dried everlasting of last year, as usual, just below Garfield's boat. Another in black willow south of long cove (east side, north of Hubbard's Grove) and another north of said cove.");June 13, 1855 ("Two kingbirds’ nests with eggs in an apple and in a willow by riverside."); June 14, 1855 ("A kingbird’s nest with four eggs on a large horizontal stem or trunk of a black willow, four feet high, over the edge of the river, amid small shoots from the willow; outside of mikania, roots, and knotty sedge, well lined with root fibres and wiry weeds"); June 16, 1855 ("Examined a kingbird’s nest found before (13th) in a black willow over edge of river, four feet from ground. Two eggs."); June 24, 1856 ("A kingbird’s nest just completed in an apple tree. "); July 5, 1856 ("A kingbird’s nest in fork of a button-bush five feet high on shore (not saddled on); three young just hatched and one egg.")
See a painted turtle beginning to lay. See June 22, 1858 (“Observe a painted turtle laying or digging at 5 P.M. She has not excavated any hole, but has already watered the ground, and, as usual when I take her up under these circumstances, passes more water.”); June 11, 1858 (“I notice that turtles which have just commenced digging will void considerable water when you take them up. This they appear to have carried up to wet the ground with.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Painted Turtle (Emys picta)
A red-wing and a kingbird are soon in pursuit of the hawk. See June 5, 1854 ("I see at a distance a kingbird or blackbird pursuing a crow lower down the hill, like a satellite revolving about a black planet."); June 7, 1858 ("It is evidence enough against crows and hawks and owls, proving their propensity to rob birds’ nests of eggs and young, that smaller birds pursue them so often.")
What was that little nest on the ridge near by, made of fine grass lined with a few hairs and containing five small eggs . . . nearly as broad as long, yet pointed, white with fine dull-brown spots especially on the large end? See June 7, 1857 ("A nest well made outside of leaves, then grass, lined with fine grass, very deep and narrow, with thick sides, with four small somewhat cream-colored eggs with small brown and some black spots chiefly toward larger end.. . .It was a Maryland yellow-throat. Egg fresh. She is very shy and will not return to nest while you wait, but keeps up a very faint chip in the bushes or grass at some distance.”); June 10, 1858 ("The usual small deep nest (but not raised up) of dry leaves, fine grass stubble, and lined with a little hair. Four eggs, white, with brown spots, chiefly at larger end, and some small black specks or scratches. The bird flits out very low and swiftly and does not show herself, so that it is hard to find the nest or to identify the bird. ”)
At length I detect the nest about eighty feet from the ground, in a very large white pine by the edge of the swamp. See May 1, 1855 ("He [Garfield] climbed the tree when I was there yesterday afternoon, the tallest white pine or other tree in its neighborhood, over a swamp, and found two young, . . .The reason I did not see my hawks at Well Meadow last year was that he found and broke up their nest there, containing five eggs.”); April 30, 1857 ("[A] pretty large hawk alighted on an oak close by us. It probably has a nest near by and was concerned for its young.”); April 30, 1855 ( It must have a nest there."); March 23, 1859 (“we saw a hen-hawk perch on the topmost plume of one of the tall pines at the head of the meadow. Soon another appeared, probably its mate, but we looked in vain for a nest there."); March 2, 1856 ("I can hardly believe that hen-hawks may be beginning to build their nests now, yet their young were a fortnight old the last of April last year.”); July 31, 1856 ("Near Well Meadow, hear the distant scream of a hawk, apparently anxious about her young, and soon a large apparent hen-hawk (?) comes and alights on the very top of the highest pine there, within gunshot, and utters its angry scream. This a sound of the season when they probably are taking their first (?) flights.")
A jay’s nest with three young half fledged in a white pine, six feet high . . . made of coarse sticks. See June 5, 1856 ("A blue jay’s nest on a white pine, eight feet from ground, next to the stem, of twigs lined with root-fibres; three fresh eggs, dark dull greenish, with dusky spots equally distributed all over,”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Blue Jay
What was that little nest on the ridge near by, made of fine grass lined with a few hairs and containing five small eggs (two hatched the 11th), nearly as broad as long, yet pointed, white with fine dull-brown spots especially on the large end—nearly hatched? The nest in the dry grass under a shrub, remarkably concealed. June 8, 1855
A kingbird's nest with three eggs, lined with some hair, in a fork — or against upright part — of a willow, just above near stone bridge. June 8, 1858
A kingbird’s nest on a black cherry, above Barbarea Shore. loosely constructed, with some long white rags dangling; one egg. June 8, 1856
Young robins in nest. June 8, 1854
I see red-wing blackbirds hatched. June 8, 1858
A tanager’s nest in the topmost forks of a pitch pine about fifteen feet high, by Thrush Alley; the nest very slight, apparently of pine needles, twigs, etc.; can see through it; bird on. June 8, 1855
Found in this walk, of nests, one tanager, two bay wing, one blue jay, one catbird, and [a Maryland yellow-throat.] June 8, 1855
As I stand by this pond, I hear a hawk scream, and, looking up, see, a pretty large one circling not far off and incessantly screaming. . . and it circles from time to time so near me, as I move southward.. . ... As I move, the bird still follows and screams, coming sometimes quite near . . . then circling far off or high into the sky. June 8, 1853
At length, as I look up at it, . . , I am singularly startled to behold, as my eye by chance penetrates deeper into the blue, -- the abyss of blue above, which I had taken for a solitude, -- its mate silently soaring at an immense height and seemingly indifferent to me. June 8, 1853
When I draw nearer to the tall trees where I suspect the nest to be, the female descends again, sweps by screaming still nearer to me just over the tree-tops, and finally, while I am looking for the orchis in the swamp, alights on a white pine twenty or thirty rods off. June 8, 1853
At length I detect the nest about eighty feet from the ground, in a very large white pine by the edge of the swamp. It is about three feet in diameter, of dry sticks, and a young hawk, apparently as big as its mother, stands on the edge of the nest looking down at me, and only moving its head when I move. June 8, 1853
It appears a tawny brown on its neck and breast, and dark brown or blackish on wings. The mother is light beneath, and apparently lighter still on rump. June 8, 1853
She rises when I get within a rod and utters that peculiar cackling or scolding note, much like, but distinct from, that of the pigeon woodpecker. She keeps circling over the nest and repeatedly stoops within a rod of my head . . . . She will come sailing swiftly and low over the tops of the trees and bushes,, and then stoop as near to my head as she dares, in order to scare me away. June 8, 1858
A red-wing and a kingbird are soon in pursuit of the hawk, which proves, I think, that she meddles with their nests or themselves.. June 8, 1858
Hear, I am pretty sure, a rose-breasted grosbeak sing. June 8, 1855
At Cedar Swamp, saw the pe-pe catching flies like a wood pewee, darting from its perch on a dead cedar twig from time to time and returning to it. It appeared to have a black crown with some crest, yellowish (?) bill, gray-brown back, black tail, two faint whitish bars on wings, a dirty cream-white throat, and a gray or ash white breast and beneath, whitest in middle. June 8, 1856
See apparently a summer duck in Goose Pond June 8, 1855
A crow two thirds grown tied up for a scarecrow. June 8, 1855
In that pitch pine wood see two rabbit forms, very snug and well-roofed retreats formed by the dead pine-needles falling about the base of the trees, where they are upheld on the dead stubs from the butt at from six inches to a foot from the ground, as if the carpet of the forest floor were puffed up there. Gnawed acorn-shells in them. June 8, 1855
At length, as I look up at it, . . , I am singularly startled to behold, as my eye by chance penetrates deeper into the blue, -- the abyss of blue above, which I had taken for a solitude, -- its mate silently soaring at an immense height and seemingly indifferent to me. June 8, 1853
When I draw nearer to the tall trees where I suspect the nest to be, the female descends again, sweps by screaming still nearer to me just over the tree-tops, and finally, while I am looking for the orchis in the swamp, alights on a white pine twenty or thirty rods off. June 8, 1853
At length I detect the nest about eighty feet from the ground, in a very large white pine by the edge of the swamp. It is about three feet in diameter, of dry sticks, and a young hawk, apparently as big as its mother, stands on the edge of the nest looking down at me, and only moving its head when I move. June 8, 1853
It appears a tawny brown on its neck and breast, and dark brown or blackish on wings. The mother is light beneath, and apparently lighter still on rump. June 8, 1853
She rises when I get within a rod and utters that peculiar cackling or scolding note, much like, but distinct from, that of the pigeon woodpecker. She keeps circling over the nest and repeatedly stoops within a rod of my head . . . . She will come sailing swiftly and low over the tops of the trees and bushes,, and then stoop as near to my head as she dares, in order to scare me away. June 8, 1858
A red-wing and a kingbird are soon in pursuit of the hawk, which proves, I think, that she meddles with their nests or themselves.. June 8, 1858
Hear, I am pretty sure, a rose-breasted grosbeak sing. June 8, 1855
At Cedar Swamp, saw the pe-pe catching flies like a wood pewee, darting from its perch on a dead cedar twig from time to time and returning to it. It appeared to have a black crown with some crest, yellowish (?) bill, gray-brown back, black tail, two faint whitish bars on wings, a dirty cream-white throat, and a gray or ash white breast and beneath, whitest in middle. June 8, 1856
See apparently a summer duck in Goose Pond June 8, 1855
A crow two thirds grown tied up for a scarecrow. June 8, 1855
In that pitch pine wood see two rabbit forms, very snug and well-roofed retreats formed by the dead pine-needles falling about the base of the trees, where they are upheld on the dead stubs from the butt at from six inches to a foot from the ground, as if the carpet of the forest floor were puffed up there. Gnawed acorn-shells in them. June 8, 1855
Observed on Fair Haven a tall pitch pine, such as some call yellow pine, very smooth, yellowish, and destitute of branches to a great height. The outer and darker-colored bark appeared to have scaled off, leaving a fresh and smooth surface. June 8, 1851
I noticed that the cellular portion of the bark of the canoe birch log from which I stripped the epidermis a week or two ago was turned a complete brick-red color very striking to behold . . . .The different colors of the various parts of this bark, at various times, fresh or stale, are extremely agreeable to my eye. June 8, 1851
I found the white-pine-top full of staminate blossom buds not yet fully grown or expanded, with a rich red tint like a tree full of fruit, but I could find no pistillate blossom. June 8, 1851
See a painted turtle beginning to lay. She has merely scratched the ground a little, and moistened it very much. This must be to make it adherent. It is at the same time beginning to rain. June 8, 1859
I see many breams' nests made, and in one or two in which I look, I find, on taking out the stones and the gravel, the small yellowish ova about one twentieth of an inch in diameter . . .like some kind of gem adhering pretty firmly, and the bream is steadily poised over her treasures. June 8, 1858
In several places I see where dead suckers have been at last partly devoured by some animal, and their great bladders are seen floating off. June 8, 1858
I had noticed when coming up the river two or three dead suckers, one with a remarkable redness about the anal fins; and this reminded me of the ephemera. It was the 2d of June, 1854, that I observed them in such numbers. June 8, 1856
When I returned to my boat, about five, . . . my boat being by chance at the same place where it was in ’54, I noticed a great flight of ephemera over the water. June 8, 1856
From time to time each one descended to the water and touched it, or rested on it a second or two, sometimes several minutes. They were generally able to rise, but very often before it arose, or not being able to rise, it was seized by a fish. While some are flying down they are met by others coming up. The water was dimpled with the leaping fish. . . What a sudden surfeit the fishes must have! June 8, 1856
Noticed yesterday, dancing before our chamber windows, swarms of little plumed gnats with white wings and a reddish body forward. June 8, 1859
A great many devil’s-needles in woods within a day or two. June 8, 1855
A great yellow and dark butterfly (C. saw something like it a week ago). June 8, 1860
I see a small mist of cobweb, globular, on a dead twig eight inches above the ground in the wood-path. It is from an inch and a half to two inches in diameter, and when I disturb it I see it swarming with a mass of a thousand minute spiders. A spider-nest lately hatched. June 8, 1860
I see a small mist of cobweb, globular, on a dead twig eight inches above the ground in the wood-path. It is from an inch and a half to two inches in diameter, and when I disturb it I see it swarming with a mass of a thousand minute spiders. A spider-nest lately hatched. June 8, 1860
At the last small pond near Well Meadow, a frog, apparently a small bullfrog, on the shore enveloped by a swarm of small, almost invisible insects, some resting on him, attracted perhaps by the slime which shone on him. He appears to endure the persecution like a philosopher. June 8, 1853
I perceive distinctly to-day that there is no articular line along the sides of the back of the bullfrog, but that there is one along the back of that bullfrog-like, smaller, widely dispersed and early frog. June 8, 1858
The great fringed orchis just open. June 8, 1853
The Rosa nitida bud which I plucked yesterday has blossomed to-day June 8, 1854
Sidesaddle, apparently to-morrow (?). June 8, 1854
The sidesaddle-flower is out, — how long? June 8, 1858
Earliest and common potamogeton. June 8, 1854
Erigeron strigosus slowly opening, perhaps to-morrow. June 8, 1854
Meadow-rue, with its rank dog-like scent. June 8, 1854
Ribwort plantain is abundantly in bloom, fifteen or sixteen inches high; how long? June 8, 1854
Utricularia vulgaris. June 8, 1854
The early potentilla is now in some places erect. June 8, 1858
And the sweet flag, how long? June 8, 1858
I perceive distinctly to-day that there is no articular line along the sides of the back of the bullfrog, but that there is one along the back of that bullfrog-like, smaller, widely dispersed and early frog. June 8, 1858
The great fringed orchis just open. June 8, 1853
The Rosa nitida bud which I plucked yesterday has blossomed to-day June 8, 1854
Sidesaddle, apparently to-morrow (?). June 8, 1854
The sidesaddle-flower is out, — how long? June 8, 1858
Earliest and common potamogeton. June 8, 1854
Erigeron strigosus slowly opening, perhaps to-morrow. June 8, 1854
Meadow-rue, with its rank dog-like scent. June 8, 1854
Ribwort plantain is abundantly in bloom, fifteen or sixteen inches high; how long? June 8, 1854
Utricularia vulgaris. June 8, 1854
The early potentilla is now in some places erect. June 8, 1858
And the sweet flag, how long? June 8, 1858
The fugacious-petalled cistus, and the pink, and the lupines of various tints are seen together. June 8, 1851
Is that small spiked rush from a few inches to a foot or more in height Eleocharis palustris? or tenuis? June 8, 1858
In early aster meadow and elsewhere common, along meadow-paths. June 8, 1858
Whiteweed is getting to be common. June 8, 1858
White actaea done there. June 8, 1857
Pulled up a yellow lily root, four feet long and branching, two and a half inches diameter.. . . Broken off, it floats. Great white rootlets put out all along it. June 8, 1856
I find no Andromeda racemosa in flower June 8, 1856
The three-leaved Solomon’s-seal has almost entirely done, while the two leaved is quite abundant. June 8, 1856
Stellaria longrfolia opposite Barbarea Shore not yet out. It is obviously different from what I call S. borealis, much more tall (one foot high) and upright, with branches ascending (not spreading) (the other grows in a dense mass at Corner Spring); leaves longer and more linear, and not at all ciliate like the other; stem much sharper-angled, almost winged; flower-buds more long and slender; and grows in high grass and is later. June 8, 1856
Carex polytrichoides grows at Well Meadow. June 8, 1860
Carex bromoides may have been out a fortnight at Well Meadow; and C. scabrata, say ten days. June 8, 1860
C. tenella (near the earliest cowslip) all in seed and much seed fallen and no sterile flower; say three weeks. June 8, 1860
C. intumescens, say five or six days (e. g., just south of earliest cowslip). June 8, 1860
That sedge which grows in the Fox Path Hollow (by the Andromeda Ponds), the coarser one, rather around the sides or slopes than at the very bottom, is a slender Carex siccata, almost all out of bloom, — all except that which is at the bottom of the hollow. June 8, 1860
Hoed potatoes first time two or three days ago; my corn to-day. June 8, 1860
High blueberry. June 8, 1855
You seek the early strawberries in any the most favorable exposure, June 8, 1860
All stagnant water is covered with the lint from the new leaves, — harmless to drink, — especially after rain. June 8, 1860
If you [take] a scarlet oak leaf and rub the under side on your coat-sleeve, it will not whiten it, but a white oak leaf will color it as with meal. June 8, 1860
The white oak leaves are especially downy, and lint your clothes. June 8, 1860.
What delicate fans are the great red oak leaves now just developed, so thin and of so tender a green! They hang loosely, flaccidly, down at the mercy of the wind, like a new-born butterfly or dragon-fly. June 8, 1860
There are two good-sized black walnuts at Cyrus Smith's, by wall, out apparently a day. . . . The fertile flower is probably not obvious yet. That of the butternut is now very distinct with its crimson stigmas. June 8, 1857
The Salix nigra is still in bloom. June 8, 1858
So vivacious is the willow, availing itself of every accident to spread along the river’s bank. The ice that strips it only disperses it the more widely. It never says die. June 8, 1856
May I be as vivacious as a willow. June 8, 1856
June 8, 2018
See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau:
The different colors of the various parts of this bark, at various times, fresh or stale, are extremely agreeable to my eye. See May 18, 1851 ("The log of a canoe birch on Fair Haven, cut down the last winter,. . .all parts of the epidermis exposed to the air and light were white, but the inner surfaces freshly exposed, were a buff or salmon-color."); January 24, 1858 ("The sprouts of the canoe birch are not reddish like the white, but a yellowish brown.); January 9, 1860 ("There is an interesting variety in the colors of their bark, passing from bronze at the earth, through ruddy and copper colors to white higher up, with shreds of different color from that beneath peeling off.")
I found the white-pine-top full of staminate blossom buds not yet fully grown or expanded, with a rich red tint like a tree full of fruit, but I could find no pistillate blossom. See June 21, 1860 ("In the white pine it is a dense cluster of twenty or thirty little flowers about the base of this year's shoot.") June 25, 1852 (" I am too late for the white pine flowers. The cones are half an inch long and greenish, and the male flowers effete."); July 1, 1852 ("The path by the wood-side is red with the effete staminiferous flowers of the white pine. ") See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The White Pines
The Rosa nitida bud which I plucked yesterday has blossomed to-day. See June 15, 1853 (“Here are many wild roses northeast of Trillium Woods. It is the pride of June. I bring home the buds ready to expand, put them in a pitcher of water, and the next morning they open and fill my chamber with fragrance.”) [Rosa nitida (Shining rose) is a wild rose found in bogs, swamps, and wet thickets, which reaches the southern edge of its range in southern New England. It produces bright pink flowers in June and July that are 2 inches across,The stems are covered in many slender, straight prickles (unlike a similar wetland rose, R. palustris). The leaves are lustrous on both sides. ~GoBotany]
Sidesaddle, apparently to-morrow. - - The sidesaddle-flower is out, — how long? See note to June 12, 1856 (''Sidesaddle flower numerously out now.") [Sarracenia purpurea, also known as the purple pitcherplant or northern pitcher plant, the only pitcherplant native to New England. ]
See a painted turtle beginning to lay. See June 22, 1858 (“Observe a painted turtle laying or digging at 5 P.M. She has not excavated any hole, but has already watered the ground, and, as usual when I take her up under these circumstances, passes more water.”); June 11, 1858 (“I notice that turtles which have just commenced digging will void considerable water when you take them up. This they appear to have carried up to wet the ground with.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Painted Turtle (Emys picta)
At length I detect the nest about eighty feet from the ground, in a very large white pine by the edge of the swamp. See May 1, 1855 ("He [Garfield] climbed the tree when I was there yesterday afternoon, the tallest white pine or other tree in its neighborhood, over a swamp, and found two young, . . .The reason I did not see my hawks at Well Meadow last year was that he found and broke up their nest there, containing five eggs.”); April 30, 1857 ("[A] pretty large hawk alighted on an oak close by us. It probably has a nest near by and was concerned for its young.”); April 30, 1855 ( It must have a nest there."); March 23, 1859 (“we saw a hen-hawk perch on the topmost plume of one of the tall pines at the head of the meadow. Soon another appeared, probably its mate, but we looked in vain for a nest there."); March 2, 1856 ("I can hardly believe that hen-hawks may be beginning to build their nests now, yet their young were a fortnight old the last of April last year.”); July 31, 1856 ("Near Well Meadow, hear the distant scream of a hawk, apparently anxious about her young, and soon a large apparent hen-hawk (?) comes and alights on the very top of the highest pine there, within gunshot, and utters its angry scream. This a sound of the season when they probably are taking their first (?) flights.")
A jay’s nest with three young half fledged in a white pine, six feet high . . . made of coarse sticks. See June 5, 1856 ("A blue jay’s nest on a white pine, eight feet from ground, next to the stem, of twigs lined with root-fibres; three fresh eggs, dark dull greenish, with dusky spots equally distributed all over,”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Blue Jay
At Cedar Swamp, saw the pe-pe catching flies like a wood pewee, darting from its perch on a dead cedar twig from time to time and returning to it. See June 5, 1856. ("The Muscicapa Cooperi sings pe pe pe’, sitting on the top of a pine . . .”); May 15, 1855 ("I hear from the top of a pitch pine in the swamp that loud, clear, familiar whistle . . . I saw it dart out once, catch an insect, and return to its perch muscicapa-like. As near as I could see it had a white throat, was whitish, streaked with dark, beneath, darker tail and wings, and maybe olivaceous shoulders; bright yellow within bill. Probably M. Cooperi.”).
The same place where it was in ’54, I noticed a great flight of ephemera over the water . See June 2,1854 ( "the whole atmosphere over the river was full of shad-flies.")
See lightning-bugs to-night. See June 3, 1852 (“It has been a sultry day, and a slight thunder-shower, and now I see fireflies in the meadows at evening.”); June 7, 1854 (“This muggy evening I see fireflies, the first I have seen or heard of at least.”); June 7, 1858 (“Fireflies pretty numerous over the river, though we have had no thunder-showers of late.”); June 11, 1851 (“When I get away from the town and deeper into the night, I hear whip-poor-wills, and see fireflies in the meadow.”); June 16, 1860 (“The meadows full of lightning-bugs to-night; first seen the 14th.”); June 17, 1852 (“In the damp, warm evening after the rain, the fireflies appear to be more numerous than ever.”); June 22, 1852 ("The fireflies in the meadows are very numerous, as if they had replenished their lights from the lightning.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Fireflies
June 8,, 2018
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
"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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