So the nuthatch breeds here.

July 12.

Hear a nuthatch in the street. So they breed here.

The best way to drink, especially at a shallow spring, or one so sunken below the surface as to be difficult to reach, is through a tube. You can commonly find growing near a spring a hollow reed or weed of some kind suitable for this purpose, such as rue or touch - me not or water saxifrage, or you can carry one in your pocket.

Juncus militaris.

The river at 8 P. M. is eight and three quarters inches above summer level.

Just after the sun is set I observe the dewdrops on the pontederia leaves. (Do not know how early they begin to form.) Even when the leaf stands perpendicular, the drop is collected at the uppermost point, and then, on a slight jar or agitation of the water, runs down the leaf. This is the only broad and thick leaf that rises above the water, and therefore it appears to be the only one that collects the dew thus early.

A Mr. Bradshaw, taxidermist, carpenter, etc., etc., of Wayland, tells me that he finds the long-eared owl there in summer, and has set it up.

H. D. Thoreau Journal, July 12, 1860

The best way to drink, especially at a shallow spring, or one so sunken below the surface as to be difficult to reach, is through a tube. See July 7, 1860 ("Some will have a broken tumbler hid in the grass near, or a rusty dipper hung on a twig near by. Others, again, drink through some hollow weed's stem. ")

Hear a nuthatch in the street. So they breed here. See November 26, 1860 ("I hear the faint note of a nuthatch . . .a phenomenon of the late fall or early winter; for we do not hear them in summer that I remember. ...”); December 1, 1857 ("I thus always begin to hear this bird on the approach of winter, as if it did not breed here, but wintered here.”)  See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Nuthatch

Just after the sun is set I observe the dewdrops on the pontederia leaves. See July 18, 1852 ("When near home, just before sundown, the sun still inconveniently warm, we were surprised to observe on the uppermost point of each pontederia leaf a clear drop of dew already formed."); July 21, 1853 ("Ten minutes before sunset I see large clear dewdrops at the tips, or half an inch below the tips, of the pontederia leaves.")

July 12. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, July 12

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