A phoebe's nest under the shelter rock at Lee's Cliff

June 29.


A. M. — Up Assabet with Blake. 

Allium Canadense in house and probably in field.

The river is now whitened with the down of the black willow, and I am surprised to see a minute plant abundantly springing from its midst and greening it, — where it has collected in denser beds against some obstacle as a branch on the surface, — like grass growing in cotton in a tumbler. 

P. M. — Walk to Lee's Cliff. 

Small rough sunflower, the common, at Bittern Cliff. 

Where I took shelter under the rock at Lee's Cliff, a phoebe has built her nest, and it now has five eggs in it, nearly fresh.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 29, 1857

Surprised to see a minute plant abundantly springing from its midst and greening it, like grass growing in cotton in a tumbler. See June 26, 1860 ("Young black willows have sprouted and put forth their two minute round leafets where the cottony seeds have lodged in a scum against the alder.")

Small rough sunflower, the common, at Bittern Cliff. See August 1, 1852 ("The small rough sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus) tells of August heats; also Helianthus annuus, common sunflower.")

Where I took shelter under the rock at Lee's Cliff . . . See May 29, 1857 ("The drops fall thicker, and I seek a shelter ...under a large projecting portion of the Cliff, where there is ample space above and around, and I can move about as perfectly protected as under a shed.")

At Lee's Cliff a phoebe has built her nest. . .five eggs in it, nearly fresh. . .See May 5, 1860 ("At Lee's a pewee (phoebe) building. . . .Think how many pewees must have built under the eaves of this cliff since pewees were created and this cliff itself built!!"); June 20, 1856  ("Five young phoebes in a nest . . .just ready to fly."); June 25, 1855 ("A phoebe’s nest, with two birds ready to fly."). See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Eastern Phoebe