to be present at the first dawn of the spring.
Henry Thoreau, March 17, 1857
What is the earliest sign of spring? The motion of worms and insects?
The flow of sap in trees and the swelling of buds?
Do not the insects awake with the flow of the sap?
March 7, 1853
You are always surprised by
the sight of the first spring bird or insect; they seem premature,
[yet] there is no such evidence of spring as themselves,
so that they literally fetch the year about.
March 10, 1855
Insects in my path --
each has a special errand
in this world, this hour.
September 30, 1852
January 20. How new all things seem! Here is a broad, shallow pool in the fields now converted into a soft, white, fleecy snow ice, It is like the beginning of the world. The world is not only new to the eye, but is still as at creation; every blade and leaf is hushed; not a bird or insect is heard; only, perchance, a faint tinkling sleigh-bell in the distance. January 20, 1855
January 20. But what a different aspect the river’s brim now from what it wears in summer! I do not this moment hear an insect hum, nor see a bird, nor a flower. January 20, 1856
January 22. Perhaps the caterpillars, etc., crawl forth in sunny and warm days in midwinter when the earth is bare, and so supply the birds, and are ready to be washed away by a flow of water! I find thus a great variety of living insects now washed out. Four kinds of caterpillars, and also the glow-worm-like creature so common, grasshoppers, crickets, and many bugs, not to mention the mosquito like insects which the warm weather has called forth (flying feebly just over the ice and snow a foot or two), spiders, and snow-fleas. A sudden thaw is, then, a great relief to crows and other birds that may have been put to it for food. January 22, 1859
January 22. I see some insects, of about this form
on the snow.
January 22, 1860
January 24. At Nut Meadow Brook the small-sized water-bugs are as abundant and active as in summer. I see forty or fifty circling together in the smooth and sunny bays all along the brook. This is something new to me . . . At night, of course, they dive to the bottom and bury themselves, and if in the morning they perceive no curtain of ice drawn over their sky, and the pleasant weather continues, they gladly rise again and resume their gyrations in some sunny bay amid the alders and the stubble. I think that I never noticed them more numerous, but the fact is I never looked for them so particularly. January 24, 1858
January 24. I see an abundance of caterpillars of various kinds on the ice of the meadows, many of those large, dark, hairy, with longitudinal light stripes, somewhat like the common apple one. Many of them are frozen in yet, some for two thirds their length, yet all are alive. Yet it has been so cold since the rise that you can now cross the channel almost anywhere. I also see a great many of those little brown grasshoppers and one perfectly green one, some of them frozen in, but generally on the surface, showing no signs of life; yet when I brought them home to experiment on, I found them all alive and kicking in my pocket. There were also a small kind of reddish wasp, quite lively, on the ice, and other insects; those naked, or smooth, worms or caterpillars. This shows what insects have their winter quarters in the meadow-grass. This ice is a good field for an entomologist. January 24, 1859
January 26. I see some insects — those glow-worm-like ones — sunk half an inch or more into the ice by absorbed heat and yet quite alive in these little holes, in which they alternately freeze and thaw. January 26, 1859
February 5. I see where crows have pecked the tufts of cladonia lichens which peep out of the snow, pulling them to pieces, no doubt looking for worms. February 5, 1860
February 7. Hayden the elder tells me that the quails have come to his yard every day for almost a month and are just as tame as chickens. They come about his wood-shed, he supposes to pick up the worms that have dropped out of the wood, and when it storms hard gather together in the corner of the shed. February 7, 1857
February 7. I notice over the ditch near the Turnpike bridge, where water stands an inch or two deep over the ice, that the dust which had blown on to the ice from the road is now very regularly and handsomely distributed over the ice by the water, i. e., is broken into prettily shaped small black figures equally distant from one another, — so that what was a deformity is now a beauty. Some kinds of worms or caterpillars have apparently crawled over it and left their trails on it, white or clear trails. February 7, 1860
February 9. In Stow's meadow by railroad causeway, saw many dusky flesh-colored, transparent worms, about five eighths of an inch long, in and upon the snow, crawling about. These, too, must be food for birds. February 9, 1854
February 10. In a thaw in the winter some water-insects — beetles, etc. — will come up through holes in the ice and swim about in the sun. February 10, 1860
February 11. Near the other swamp white oak on Shattuck's piece I found another caterpillar on the ice. February 11, 1857
February 12. The caterpillar, which I placed last night on the snow beneath the thermometer, is frozen stiff again, this time not being curled up, the temperature being -6° now. Yet, being placed on the mantelpiece, it thaws and begins to crawl in five or ten minutes, before the rear half of its body is limber. February 12, 1857
February 14. Numerous caterpillars are now crawling about on the ice and snow, the thermometer in the shade north of house standing 42°. So it appears that they must often thaw in the course of the winter, and find nothing to eat. February 14, 1857
February 20. If I were to discover that a certain kind of stone by the pond-shore was affected, say partially disintegrated, by a particular natural sound, as of a bird or insect, I see that one could not be completely described without describing the other. I am that rock by the pond-side. February 20, 1857
February 23. I have seen signs of the spring. February 23, 1857
February 24. I have seen the probings of skunks for a week or more. I now see where one has pawed out the worm-dust or other chankings from a hole in base of a walnut and torn open the fungi, etc., there, exploring for grubs or insects. They are very busy these nights. February 24, 1857
February 27. I see many crows on the hillside, with their sentinel on a tree. They are picking the cow-dung scattered about, apparently for the worms, etc., it contains. They have done this in so many places that it looks as if the farmer had been at work with his maul. They must save him some trouble thus. February 27, 1857
February 27. C. saw a skater-insect on E. Hubbard's Close brook in woods to-day. February 27, 1860
February 28. Looking from Hubbard's Bridge, I see a great water-bug even on the river, so forward is the season. February 28, 1860
March 3. I see a dirty-white miller fluttering about over the winter-rye patch next to Hubbard’s Grove. March 3, 1855
March 3. I see one of those gray-winged (long and slender) perla-like insects by the waterside this afternoon. March 3, 1860
March 5. See a small blackish caterpillar on the snow. Where do they come from? March 5, 1854
March 5. I see crows walking about on the ice half covered with snow in the middle of the meadows, where there is no grass, apparently to pick up the worms and other insects left there since the midwinter freshet. We see one or two little gnats or mosquitoes in the air. March 5, 1859
March 6. I see various kinds of insects out on the snow now. March 6, 1856
March 7. What is the earliest sign of spring? The motion of worms and insects? The flow of sap in trees and the swelling of buds? Do not the insects awake with the flow of the sap? Bluebirds, etc., probably do not come till insects come out. Or are there earlier signs in the water? - the tortoises, frogs, etc. March 7, 1853
March 7. Hear the first bluebird, — something like pe-a-wor, — and then other slight warblings, as if farther off . . . He revisits the apple trees, and appears to find some worms. Probably not till now is his food to be found abundantly. . March 7, 1854
March 7. I see a great many of those glow-worm-like caterpillars observed in the freshet in midwinter, on the snowy ice in the meadows and fields now; also small beetles of various kinds, and other caterpillars. I think this unusual number is owing to that freshet, which washed them out of their winter quarters so long ago, and they have never got back to them. March 7, 1859
March 8. Heard the first flies buzz in the sun on the south side of the house. March 8, 1853
March 8. I see of late more than before of the fuzzy caterpillars, both black and reddish—brown. March 8, 1855
March 8. I see there a dead white pine, some twenty-five feet high, which has been almost entirely stripped of its bark by the woodpeckers. Where any bark is left, the space between it and the wood is commonly closely packed with the gnawings of worms, which appear to have consumed the inner bark. But where the bark is gone, the wood also is eaten to some depth, and there are numerous holes penetrating deep into the wood. Over all this portion, which is almost all the tree, the woodpeckers have knocked off the bark and enlarged the holes in pursuit of the worms. March 8, 1859
March 9. C. also saw a skater-insect on the 7th, and a single blackbird flying over Cassandra Ponds, which he thought a grackle. March 9, 1859
March 10. See a skunk in the Corner road, which I follow sixty rods or more . . . It makes a singular loud patting sound repeatedly, on the frozen ground under the wall . . . Probably it has to do with its getting its food, — patting the earth to get the insects or worms. Though why it does so now I know not. . . .I have no doubt they have begun to probe already where the ground permits, — or as far as it does. But what have they eat all winter? March 10, 1854
March 10. You are always surprised by the sight of the first spring bird or insect; they seem premature, and there is no such evidence of spring as themselves, so that they literally fetch the year about. March 10, 1855
March 10. See in one place a small swarm of insects flying or gyrating, dancing like large tipulidae. The dance within the compass of a foot always above a piece of snow of the same size in the midst of bare ground. March 10, 1859
March 12. There are many other insects and worms and caterpillars (and especially spiders, dead) on the ice, there as well as elsewhere . . . I find a great many that appear to have been drowned rather than frozen. May not this have tempted the bluebirds on early this year? March 12, 1859
March 13. I see some of my little gnats of yesterday in the morning sun, somewhat mosquito-like. March 13, 1853
March 13. In some meadows I see a great many dead spiders on the ice, where apparently it has been overflowed — or rather it was the heavy rain, methinks — when they had no retreat. March 13, 1859
March 14. I see a large flock of grackles searching for food along the water's edge . . . It must be something just washed up that they are searching for, for the water has just risen and is still rising fast. Is it not insects and worms washed out of the grass? and perhaps the snails? March 14, 1859
March 15. Am surprised to hear, from the pool behind Lee's Cliff, the croaking of the wood frog. It is all alive with them, and I see them spread out on the surface . . . How suddenly they awake! yesterday, as it were, asleep and dormant, to-day as lively as ever they are. The awakening of the leafy woodland pools. They must awake in good condition. As Walden opens eight days earlier than I have known it, so this frog croaks about as much earlier. Many large fuzzy gnats and other insects in air. March 15, 1860
March 15, I see those devil's-needle-like larvæ in the warm pool south of Hubbard's Grove (with two tails) swimming about and rising to the top. March 15, 1860
March 17. Even the shade is agreeable to-day. You hear the buzzing of a fly from time to time, and see the black speck zigzag by. March 17, 1858
March 17. As usual, I have seen for some weeks on the ice these peculiar (perla?) insects with long wings and two tails. March 17, 1858
March 17. To-day it is perfectly still and warm. Not a ripple disturbs the surface of these lakes, but every insect, every small black beetle struggling on it, is betrayed. March 17, 1859
March 18. Examining the skunk-cabbage, now generally and abundantly in bloom all along under Clamshell, I hear the hum of honeybees in the air, attracted by this flower. They circle about the bud at first hesitatingly, then alight and enter at the open door and crawl over the spadix, and reappear laden with the yellow pollen . . . There is but one flower in bloom in the town, and this insect knows where to find it. March 18, 1860
March 19. A fine clear and warm day for the season. Launch my boat . . .I am surprised to find that the river has not yet worn through Fair Haven Pond. Getting up a weed with the paddle close to the shore under water, where five or six inches deep, I find a fishworm in the mud. March 19, 1855
March 19. Myriads of water-bugs of various sizes are now gyrating, and they reflect the sun like silver. Why do they cast a double orbicular shadow on the bottom? March 19, 1860
March 20. It cheers me more to behold the swarms of gnats which have revived in the spring sun. March 20, 1858
March 20. We look into that pool on the south side of Hubbard’s Grove, and admire the green weeds, water purslane (?), at the bottom. There is, slowly moving along in it near the bottom, one of those bashaws with two tails, — in this case red tails, —something devil’s-needle-like. The whole pool is full of a small gyrating insect. March 20, 1858
March 20. Worm-piles in dooryard this morning. March 20, 1860
March 22. At Nut Meadow Brook, water-bugs and skaters are now plenty. March 22, 1853
March 22. On water standing above the ice under a white maple, are many of those Perla (?) insects, with four wings, drowned, though it is all ice and snow around the country over. Do not see any flying, nor before this. March 22, 1856
March 22. Black drops of this thick, sweet syrup spot the under sides of the twigs. No doubt the bees and‘ other insects frequent the maples now. I thought I heard the hum of a bee, but perhaps it was a railroad whistle on the Lowell Railroad. March 22, 1858
March 22. The phenomena of an average March . . . Many insects and worms come forth and are active,- and the perla insects still about ice and water, — as tipula, grubs, and fuzzy caterpillars, minute hoppers on grass at springs; gnats, large and small, dance in air; the common and the green fly buzz outdoors; the gyrinus, large and small, on brooks, etc., and skaters; spiders shoot their webs, and at last gossamer floats; the honey bee visits the skunk-cabbage; fishworms come up, sow-bugs, wireworms etc.; various larvæ are seen in pools; small green and also brown grasshoppers begin to hop, small ants to stir (25th); Vanessa Antiopa out 29th; cicindelas run on sand; and small reddish butterflies are seen in wood-paths, etc., etc., etc. March 22, 1860
March 24. I see many of those narrow four-winged insects (perla?) of the ice now fluttering on the water like ephemerae. They have two pairs of wings indistinctly spotted dark and light. March 24, 1857
March 29. How empty and silent the woods now, before leaves have put forth or thrushes and warblers are come! Deserted halls, floored with dry leaves, where scarcely an insect stirs as yet. March 29, 1857
See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Insect Hatches in Spring (millers, perla, shad-flies or ephemera)
See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, I Have Seen Signs of the Spring:
- A Change in the Air
- A Sunny Nook in Spring
- Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding
- Braided Ripples of Melting Snow Shine in the Ruts
- Bright Blue Water
- Buzzing Flies
- Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow
- First silvery sheen from needles of the white pine waving in the wind
- Frogs, and Turtles Stirring
- Geese Overhead
- Greening Grasses and Sedges
- I begin to think that my wood will last.
- Insects and Worms Come Forth and are Active
- Listening for the Bluebird
- March is famous for its Winds
- Mosses Bright Green
- My Greatcoat on my Arm
- Perla-like Insects Appear
- Red Maple Sap Flows
- Ripples made by Fishes
- Skunks Active
- The Anxious Peep of the Early Robin
- The Crowing of Cocks, the Cawing of crows
- The Days have grown Sensibly Longer
- The Eaves Begin to Run
- The Gobbling of Turkeys
- The Grackle Arrives
- The Hawks of March
- The New Warmth of the Sun
- The Note of the Dark-eyed Junco Going Northward
- The Red-Wing Arrives
- The Skunk Cabbage Blooms
- The Softened Air of these Warm February Days
- The Song Sparrow Sings
- The Spring Note of the Chickadee
- The Spring Note of the Nuthatch
- The Striped Squirrel Comes Out
- The Water Bug (Gyrinus)
- The Woodchuck Ventures Out
- Walking without Gloves
- Woodpeckers Tapping
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Osier in Winter and early Spring
A cold and strong wind
yet very warm in the sun –
a fly on this rock.
March 4, 1855
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,
Signs of the Spring: insects and worms come forth and are active
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 © 2009-2023
https://tinyurl.com/HDTWorms
