The spawn of April 18th is gone!

April 22.

April 22, 2018

Hear martins about a box. 

P. M. — To Hubbard’s Great Meadow. 

The spawn of April 18th is gone! It was fresh there and apparently some creature has eaten it. 

I see spawn (R. halecina-like) in the large pool southeast of this and catch one apparently common-sized (!) R. halecina near it. The general aspect dark-brown, with bronze-colored stripes along sides of back one tenth of an inch wide; spots, roundish with a dull-green halo; a roundish spot on each orbit; no bright spots. 

I catch apparently another in the Great Meadow, and I think some R. halecina are still spawning, for I see some fresh spawn there. 

Andromeda, apparently a day or two,—at least at edge of Island Wood, which I have not seen. 

I walk along several brooks and ditches, and see a great many yellow-spotted turtles; several couples copulating. The uppermost invariably has a depressed sternum while the other’s is full. 

The Emys picta are evidently breeding also. See two apparently coupled on the shore. 

You see both kinds now in little brooks not more than a foot wide, slowly and awkwardly moving about one another. They can hardly make their way against the swift stream. I see one E. picta holding on to a weed with one of its fore feet. Meanwhile a yellow-spotted turtle shoots swiftly down the stream, carried along by the current, and is soon out of sight. 

The E. picta are also quite common in the shallows on the river meadows. 

I see many masses of empty or half-empty R. halecina spawn.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 22, 1858

The spawn of April 18th is gone! See April 7, 1858 (“I brought home the above two kinds of spawn in a pail. Putting some of the Rana halecina spawn in a tumbler of water. . . .”); April 14, 1858 (“My Rana halecina spawn in tumbler is now flatted out and begins to betray the pollywog form.”);  April 17, 1858 (“The Rana halecina spawn in tumbler begins to struggle free of the ova”); April 18, 1858 (“Put some R. halecina spawn which has flatted out in a ditch on Hubbard’s land.”); April 27, 1858 (“I noticed yesterday that again the newly laid spawn at the cold pool on Hubbard's land was all gone, and that in the larger pool south of it was much diminished. What creature devours it? ”)

A great many yellow-spotted turtles; several couples copulating. See  June 5, 1857  (“I see a great many tortoises in that pool, showing their heads and backs above water and pursuing each other about the pool. It is evidently their copulating-season.”); also March 26, 1860 (“The yellow-spotted tortoise may [first] be seen February 23, as in '57, or not till March 28, as in '55”);and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Yellow-Spotted Turtle

It is the nicest day of spring so far. The second sunny day in a row after about two weeks rain sleet and snow. The dogs and I walk to the view and back. Little acorn leads the way choosing the trails (she knows them well).we take the under view Trail and while the dogs veer off here and there they generally follow me and follow acorn who dashes up the last steep and decides we are going to take the shortcut up. The snow is virtually gone although it seems two days ago the view seen from a distance was a white spot on the hill. At the view there is a wind that is chilly in the shade and so I move down to the right in the sun. The sky is blue the lake is blue the pond is blue. I am sitting in the sun on the deck now listening to the cheer up cheer ee of a Robin.. The phoebe is here nesting in his usual spot. But there have not been many signs of spring. One hepatica discovered on the hike yesterday. Spring beauty is not yet in bloom.. The phoebe was here on time and also the hermit thrush ( seen only, not heard.) At the lower view I hear the wood frog in the wetland below (quacking) – a first.. Also the jingle of the juncos who I suppose are staging for their trip north.

Second sunny day 

after two weeks in a row

of rain sleet and snow.
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