Surveying a blueberry and maple swamp.

June 5. 

June 5, 2018

A. M. —Surveying a blueberry and maple swamp belonging to Thomas Brooks in the northeast part of Lincoln, burned over in fall of '57. 

The fire spread across a ditch about four feet wide, catching the dry grass. 

The maples are killed part way or entirely round, near the ground, as you find on cutting the bark, being most protected on the inside of a clump toward each other, but less and less as you try higher up. Yet, generally, they have leaved out. Will they, when thus girdled, live more than one year? 

The effect on the alders has been that the bark for a foot or two next the ground is now in loose curls turned back or outward, showing the yellowish wood and yellowish inner side of the bark, evidently owing to the drying and contracting of the outside. 

The principal loss appears to have been of blueberries. Brooks says he has got twenty-five (??) bushels there in a year. 

P. M. —Surveying, for Warner, wood bought of John Brown near Concord line. 

I now see a painted turtle in a rut, crossing a sandy road. They are now laying, then. When they get into a rut they find it rather difficult to get out, and, hearing a wagon coming, they draw in their heads, lie still, and are crushed. 

Clasping hound's-tongue in garden. 

Can our second gooseberry in garden be the R. rotundifolium?

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 5, 1858

Surveying, for Warner, wood bought of John Brown. See May 19, 1858 ("A. M. – Surveying (by the eye) for Warner the meadow surveyed for John Hosmer in June, ’56. “)


I now see a painted turtle in a rut. See June 15, 1857 ("Now is the time that they are killed in the ruts all the country over.”). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Painted Turtle

Heard the night-warbler begin his strain just like an oven-bird!

May 19. 

A. M. – Surveying (by the eye) for Warner the meadow surveyed for John Hosmer in June, ’56. 

The black currant near southwest corner of his Saw Mill field (Ribes floridum) perfectly out; how long? 

P. M. – To Everett Spring.

May 19, 2019

There appears to be quite a variety in the colors of the Viola cucullata [blue marsh violet]. Some dark-blue, if not lilac (?), some with a very dark blue centre and whitish circum ference, others dark-blue within and dark without, others all very pale blue. 

May 19, 2019

Stellaria borealis well out, apparently several days. 

What I called the Ranunculus bulbosus there May 3d proves to be the R. repens. It would appear then to be the earliest ranunculus. It is a dense bed of yellow now. I am struck by the light spot in the sinuses of the leaves. 

The Equisetum sylvaticum there is now of a reddish cast. 

Starflower (Trientalis borealis)

May 19, 2023

R. W. E. says that Pratt found yesterday out the trientalis, Trillium cernuum, and Smilacina bifolia. 

Four rods plus south of the cross-fence over Everett's hill, on the west slope, I find the Ranunculus abortivus, two plants open only; but will not shed pollen till to-morrow. 

A rod or two further the Equisetum hyemale, apparently a little past bloom, or effete, all the heads open. 

Looking with my glass into the Gourgas pond-hole, I see three or four buck-bean blossoms. 

Two birds about the size and of the appearance of a pigeon or turtle dove start up with a loud alarm note from the shallow muddy flat there, — with a harsh shrill cry, phil phil phil or the like. At first I could not guess what they were, but since concluded that they were the larger yellow-legs. 

Could this bird have made the sound heard on the 15th? 

There remained feeding on the mud along the water's edge two peetweet-like birds, but apparently larger and less teetering. I thought they were T. solitaires. 

Heard the night-warbler begin his strain just like an oven-bird! I have noticed that when it drops down into the woods it darts suddenly one side to a perch when low.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 19, 1858

Surveying for Warner the meadow surveyed for John Hosmer in June, ’56. See June 3, 1856 ("Surveying for John Hosmer beyond pail-factory”); June 4, 1856 (“Surveying for J. Hosmer . . .running a line on the west edge of Loring’s Pond, south of the brook.”).  Also  June 6, 1856 ("J. Hosmer, who is prosecuting Warner for flowing his land, says that the trees are not only broken off when young by weight of ice, but, being rubbed and barked by it, become warty or bulge out there.")

There appears to be quite a variety in the colors of the Viola cucullata. See May 15, 1856  ("Viola cucullata abundant now.”); May 20, 1852 ("The Viola ovata is of a deep purple blue, is darkest and has most of the red in it; the V. pedata is smooth and pale-blue, delicately tinged with purple reflections; the cucullata is more decidedly blue, slaty-blue, and darkly striated.")

Two birds start up with a loud alarm note from the shallow muddy flat with a harsh shrill cry, phil phil phil or the like The larger yellow-legs. See May 31, 1854 ( "It acts the part of a telltale." "watchful, but not timid, ... while it stands on the lookout ... wades in the water to the middle of its yellow legs; goes off with a loud and sharp phe phe phe phe. ...”); August 5, 1855 (" Hear a yellow-legs flying over,—phe' phe phe, phe' phe phe.”); September 14, 1854 ("A flock of thirteen tell tales, great yellow-legs, start up with their shrill whistle from the midst of the great Sudbury meadow, and away they sail in a flock. . .to alight in a more distant place.”)

Heard the night-warbler begin his strain just like an oven-bird!  Thoreau's night-warbler  is likely the oven-bird making its flight call. According to Emerson the night warbler is "a bird he had never identified, had been in search of twelve years, which always, when he saw it, was in the act of diving down into a tree or bush.” See  May 8, 1860 ("The night-warbler's note.");  May 9, 1852 ("Heard the night warbler.”); May 9, 1853 ("Again I think I heard the night-warbler.”); May 10, 1854 ("Heard the night-warbler. “);  May 12, 1857 ("A night-warbler, plainly light beneath. It always flies to a new perch immediately after its song");.  May 13, 1855 ("At 9.30 P.M. I hear from our gate my night-warbler. Never heard it in the village before.”); May 14, 1852 (“Most birds are silent in the storm.Hear the robin, oven-bird, night warbler, and [etc.]); May 16, 1858 ("Hear the night-warbler"); May 17, 1858 ("Just after hearing my night-warbler I see two birds on a tree. ...[One perhaps golden-crowned thrush. ]”); May 19, 1858 (“Heard the night-warbler begin his strain just like an oven-bird! I have noticed that when it drops down into the woods it darts suddenly one side to a perch when low."); May 28, 1854 ("The night-warbler, after his strain, drops down almost perpendicularly into a tree-top and is lost.”). See also May 12, 1855 (“We sit about half an hour, and it is surprising what various distinct sounds we hear there deep in the wood, as if the aisles of the wood were so many ear trumpets,-- the cawing of crows, the peeping of hylas in the swamp and perhaps the croaking of a tree-toad, the oven-bird, the yorrick of Wilson’s thrush, a distant stake-driver, the night-warbler and black and white creeper, the lowing of cows, the late supper horn, the voices of boys, the singing of girls, -- not all together but separately, distinctly, and musically, from where the partridge and the red-tailed hawk and the screech owl sit on their nests.”)

May 19.  See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 19

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 © 2009-2021

To rescue a star-nosed mole.

June 6 

P. M. — To Andromeda Ponds. 

Cold mizzling weather. 

In the large circular hole or cellar at the turntable on the railroad, which they are repairing, I see a star-nosed mole endeavoring in vain to bury himself in the sandy and gravelly bottom. 

Some inhuman fellow has cut off his tail. 

It is blue-black with much fur, a very thick, plump animal, apparently some four inches long, but he occasionally shortens himself a third or more. Looks as fat as a fat hog. His fore feet are large and set sidewise or on their edges, and with these he shovels the earth aside, while his large, long, starred snout is feeling the way and breaking ground. I see deep indentations in his fur where his eyes are situated, and once I saw distinctly his eye open, a dull blue (?) black head, not so very small, and he very plainly noticed my movements two feet off. He was using his eye as plainly as any creature that I ever saw. Yet Emmons says it is a question whether their eyes are not merely rudimentary. I suppose this was the Condylura macroma, since that is most common, but only an inch of its tail was left, and that was quite stout. 

I carry him along to plowed ground, where he buries himself in a minute or two. 

June 6, 2016

Still see cherry-birds in flocks of five or six. 

A catbird nest on shore of Andromeda and in shrub oak, three feet high, twigs and bark shreds lined with root-fibres; three eggs. 

Those nests in the andromeda are blackbird’s. Many sound the alarm while I am wading through the swamp. Noticed one with three eggs. 

Salix bebbiana (Wikipedia)

Salix rostrata (Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts)

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 (I had remarked the peculiar yellow of its flowers) willows (fulvae) of Barratt. It is now just beginning to open its long beaks. The S. cordata is another of the ochre-flowered ones. 

How well suited the lining of a bird’s nest, not only for the comfort of the young, but to keep the eggs from breaking! Fine elastic grass stems or root-fibres, pine needles, or hair, or the like. These tender and brittle things which you can hardly carry in cotton lie there without harm. 

J. Hosmer, who is prosecuting Warner for flowing his land, says that the trees are not only broken off when young by weight of ice, but, being rubbed and barked by it, become warty or bulge out there.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 6, 1856

I see a star-nosed mole . . . blue-black with much fur, a very thick, plump animal, apparently some four inches long. . . fore feet are large and set sidewise or on their edges, and with these he shovels the earth aside, while his large, long, starred snout is feeling the way.   See note to February 20, 1852 ("We . . . rarely see these animals, though their tracks are so common. "); February 8, 1856  ("Puffer saw a star - nosed mole yesterday in the road.  Its track was  dog-like ."); September 12, 1859 ("I saw a star-nosed mole dead in the path on Conantum yesterday, with no obvious wound.") See also Animal Diversity Web, Condylura cristata

I carry him along to plowed ground, where he buries himself in a minute or two. See July 23, 1856 ("Saw . . . a small bullfrog in the act of swallowing a young but pretty sizable apparently Rana palustris, . . . I sprang to make him disgorge, but it was too late to save him. "); April 22, 1857 (“Near Tall's Island, rescue a little pale or yellowish brown snake that was coiled round a willow half a dozen rods from the shore and was apparently chilled by the cold.”); August 28, 1854 (“The meadow is drier than ever, and new pools are dried up. The breams, from one to two and a half inches long, lying on the sides and quirking from time to time. . . — pretty green jewels, dying in the sun. I saved a dozen or more by putting them in deeper pools.”); April 12, 1858 (“We came upon a partridge standing on the track, between the rails over which the cars had just passed. She had evidently been run down, but. . . was apparently more disturbed in mind than body. I took her up and carried her one side to a safer place.”)

Still see cherry-birds in flocks of five or six.  See  June 2, 1853 ("Cherry-birds are the only ones I see in flocks now. I can tell them afar by their peculiar fine springy note.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Cherry-Bird (cedar waxwing)

A catbird nest on shore of Andromeda and in shrub oak. See June 6, 1855  ("Two catbirds’ nests in the thickest part of the thicket on the edge of Wheeler’s meadow near Island."); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,  Catbird nests

Those nests in the andromeda are blackbird’s. See  May 25, 1855 ("Red-wing’s nest with four eggs — white, very faintly tinged with (perhaps) green and curiously and neatly marked with brown-black spots and lines on the large end.") See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Red-wing in Spring

That willow, male and female, opposite to Trillium Woods on the railroad . .. Salix rostrata, or long-beaked willow, See May 10, 1856 {"On the railroad causeway against Trillium Wood, I see an apparently native willow, a shrub, with greenish bark and conspicuous yellow catkins, now in full bloom, apparently a little earlier than the Salix alba, but its leafets or bracts much less advanced and conspicuous. Another on the Walden road. What is it?"); May 6, 1858 (“The Salix rostrata staminate flowers are of very peculiar yellow, — a bright, what you might call yellow yellow.”)

The S. cordata is another of the ochre-flowered ones. See June 6, 1855 ("The Salix cordata (which apparently blossomed some days after the S. sericea) is very common on Prichard’s shore and also Whiting’s.")

J. Hosmer . . . is prosecuting Warner for flowing his land. See June 3, 1856 ("Surveying for John Hosmer beyond pail-factory”); June 4, 1856 (“Surveying for J. Hosmer . . . running a line on the west edge of Loring’s Pond, south of the brook.”).; May 19, 1858 ("Surveying for Warner the meadow surveyed for John Hosmer in June, ’56.") 

June 6. See  A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, June 6

Star-nosed mole rescue.

I carry him to plowed ground –

he buries himself.

The long-beaked willow, 

one of the ochre-flowered, 

now just beginning . . .

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, To rescue a star-nosed mole

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 ©  2009-2026

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