Yellowbird building a nest.

May 31.

Another windy, washing day, but warm. 

See a yellowbird building a nest on a white oak on the Island. She goes to a fern for the wool. 

In evening hear distinctly a tree-toad.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 31, 1855

A yellowbird building a nest on a white oak on the Island. See May 31, 1858 ("A yellowbird’s nest of that grayish milkweed fibre, one egg, in alder by wall west of Indian burying(?)-ground. “) See also  January 19, 1856 ("Knocked down the bottom of that summer yellow bird’s nest made on the oak at the Island last summer. It is chiefly of fern wool and also, apparently, some sheep’s wool (?), with a fine green moss (apparently that which grows on button-bushes) inmixed, and some milkweed fibre, and all very firmly agglutinated together.").and  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Summer Yellowbird

In evening hear distinctly a tree-toad. See May 23, 1857 ("I hear one regular bullfrog trump, and as I approach the edge of the Holden Swamp, the tree-toads."); May 27, 1852 ("Methinks the tree-toad croaks more this wet weather."); June 9, 1854 ("The veery rings, and the tree-toad.")

A familiar warbler not recognized for some years.

May 30. 

See bird’s nest on an apple by roadside, seven feet high; one egg. Cherry-bird on a cherry; also pecking at the apple blossoms. 

Buttonwood flowers now effete; fertile flowers were not brown on the 24th, but were the 28th; say, then, about the 26th. 

Lepidium virginicum, roadside bank at Minott’s.

The myrica, bayberry, plucked on the 23d, now first sheds pollen in house, the leaf being but little more expanded on the flowering shoot. Gray says, “ somewhat preceding the flowers.” The catkins about a quarter of an inch long, erect, sterile, oval, on the sides of last year’s twigs. 

P. M. — Up railroad. 

A strong west wind and much haze. Silvery potentilla, four or five days at least. 

In the thick of the wood between railroad and Turnpike, hear the evergreen forest note, and see probably the bird, — black throat, greenish-yellow or yellowish-green head and back, light-slate (?) wings with two white bars. Is it not the black-throated green warbler? 

I find close by a small fresh egg on the forest floor, with a slight perforation, white (with perhaps a tinge of flesh-color (?) when full), and brown spots and black marks at the larger end. In Brewer’s synopsis the egg of the black throat is described as “light flesh-color with purple spots.” But these spots are not purple. I could find no nest. 

Senecio in open meadows, say yesterday. 

See a small black snake run along securely through thin bushes (alders and willows) three or four feet from the ground, passing intervals of two feet easily,—very readily and gracefully, —ascending or descending. 

Cornus Canadensis out, how long? 

Green lice from birches (?) get on my clothes. 

Is it not summer now when the creak of the crickets begins to be general? 

Poison-dogwood has grown three or four inches at ends of last year’s shoots, which are three to six feet from ground. 

Setophaga magnolia

Hear a familiar warbler not recognized for some years, in the thick copse in Dennis’s Swamp, south of railroad; considerably yellowbird-like (the note) — tshe tshe tshar tshar tchit, tchit tit te vet. It has apparently a yellow head, bluish or slaty wings with two white bars, tail even, wings dusky at tips, legs light, bill dark, beneath all bright-yellow, remarkably striped lengthwise with dusky, more or less dark in different specimens. Can it be the S. maculosa, or black and yellow warbler, seen formerly? I did not see the black - —— nor indeed the back at all well. It may have been a female, not described by Wilson. Frequents the tops of trees. 

Ladies’ slipper, apparently.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 30, 1855

In the thick of the wood between railroad and Turnpike, hear the evergreen forest note, and see probably the bird . . .    See May 11, 1854 ("Hear the evergreen-forest note"); June 1, 1854 ("Hear my evergreen-forest note, sounding rather raspingly as usual, where there are large oaks and pines mingled. It is very difficult to discover now that the leaves are grown, as it frequents the tops of the trees. But I get a glimpse of its black throat and, I think, yellow head "); July 10 1854 ("Evergreen-forest note, I think, still."); May 6, 1855 (“the er er twe, ter ter twe, evergreen-forest note”); May 7, 1856 ("I hear the evergreen-forest note close by; and hear and see many myrtle-birds, at the same time that I hear what I have called the black and white creeper’s note. Have I ever confounded them?”).

Ladies’ slipper, apparently. See note to May 30, 1856 ("The lady’s-slipper in pitch pine wood-side.”)

May 30 See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 30

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

A family of juvenile restarts

American Redstart

May 29.

P. M. —To Island Neck. 

That willow by the rock south of Island (of May 2d) appears to be without doubt the Salix sericea, — the leaves beginning to turn black quite soon, and the bark is very bitter. There is, then, another small willow or sallow with narrower and shining leaves, very common along river, with longer catkins and very long tapering smooth pods, —I mean the one I have associated with the S. alba. 

Azalea nudiflora in garden. 

There are a great many birds now on the Island Neck. The red-eye, its clear loud song in bars continuously repeated and varied; all tempered white beneath and dark yellow olive above and on edge of wings, with a dark line on side-head or from root of bill; dusky claws, and a very long bill. The long bill and the dark line on the side of the head, with the white above and beneath, or in the midst of the white, giving it a certain oblong, swelled-cheek look, would distinguish on a side view. 

There is also the warbling vireo, with its smooth-flowing, continuous, one-barred, shorter strain, with methinks a dusky side-head. 

Also the yellow-throated vireo—its head and shoulders as well as throat yellow (apparently olive-yellow above), and its strain but little varied and short, not continuous. It has dusky legs and two very distinct white bars on wings (the male). 

I see the first swamp sparrow of the season, and probably heard its loud song; clear, broad, undivided chestnut or bay (?) crown and clear dark-ash throat and breast, and light, perhaps yellowish, line over eye, dark bill, and much bay (?) on wings. Low, amid the alders. 

But what is that bird I hear much like the first part of the yellowbird’s strain, only two thirds as long and varied at end, and not so loud, — a-che che che, che-a, or tche tche tche, tche-a, or ah tche tche tche, chit-i-vet? 

It is very small, not timid, but incessantly changing its position on the pitch pines, etc. Some a pure dull white, some tawny-white, beneath; some cinereous, others more dusky still, above; with a flycatcher or muscicapa bill and head (head rounded ?), but — what is most remarkable —a very deeply forked or divided tail with a broad black tip beneath, and toward the roots a fire—brick-color, this last color much brighter on the sides of the breast, and some of it on the wings in a broad bar, though some perhaps have not the last mark. 

Did I see some of the yellowish on rump? Dark ash above and some reddish-brown (?). One is very inquisitive; hops down toward me lower and lower on the pitch pine twigs, while I hold out my hand till within five feet, but in such a light that I cannot distinguish its colors. 

There are at least half a dozen of them about; continually flitting about, sometimes in a circle of a few rods’ diameter, one pursuing another, both male and female, back to near the same spot, but I can hardly bring my glass to bear on them before they change their position.

It is undoubtedly young males and the females of the redstart, described by Wilson, — very different from the full-plumaged black males. 

I see on the first limb of a white oak, close to the trunk and about eight feet from the ground, squatting as if asleep, a chipping squirrel two thirds grown. The hole it came out of, apparently, is four or five feet from the base of the tree. When I am about to put my hand on it, it runs feebly up the tree and rests again as much higher in a similar place. When C. climbs after, it runs out quite to the end of a limb, where it can hardly hold on, and I think it will drop every moment with the shaking of the tree.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 29, 1855

Azalea nudiflora in garden. See May 31, 1853 ("I am going in search of the Azalea nudiflora.")

But what is that bird I hear? It is undoubtedly young males and the females of the redstart. See April 11, 1853 ("Female dark ashy and fainter marks") See also A Book of Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The American Redstart

While we sit by the path in the depths of the woods

May 28.

P.M. —To Middle Conantum Cliff. 

Yesterday left my boat at the willow opposite this Cliff, the wind northwest. Now it is southeast, and I can sail back. 

Our quince open this morning, possibly yesterday; and some others, I believe, much earlier. 

Do I not hear a short snappish, rasping note from a yellow-throat vireo? 

I see a tanager, the most brilliant and tropical-looking bird we have, bright-scarlet with black wings, the scarlet appearing on the rump again between wing-tips. He brings heat, or heat him. A remarkable contrast with the green pines. At this distance he has the aspect and manners of a parrot, with a fullness about the head and throat and beak, indolently inspecting the limbs and twigs —leaning over to it — and sitting still a long time. The female, too, is a neat and handsome bird, with the same indolent ways, but very differently colored from the male; all yellow below with merely dusky wings, and a sort of clay(?)-color on back. 

While we sit by the path in the depths of the woods three quarters of a mile beyond Hayden’s, confessing the influence of almost the first summer warmth, the wood thrush sings steadily for half an hour, now at 2.30 P.M., amid the pines, — loud and clear and sweet. While other birds are warbling betweenwhiles and catching their prey, he alone appears to make a business of singing, like a true minstrel. 

Is that one which I see at last in the path above dusky olive-brown becoming ferruginous on base of tail, eye not very prominent with a white line around it, some dark-colored feathers apparently on outer wing-coverts, very light colored legs, with dashes on breast which I do not see clearly? I should say that it had not the large black eye of the hermit thrush, and I cannot see the yellowish spot on the wings; yet it may have been this. 

I find the feathers apparently of a brown thrasher in the path, plucked since we passed here last night. You can generally find all the tail and quill feathers in such a case. 

The apple bloom is very rich now. 

Fever-bush shoots are now two inches long; say begin to leaf just before late willow. Black ash shoots three inches long; say with late willow. White pine and pitch pine shoots from two to five inches long. 

Rubus triflorus at Miles Swamp will apparently open to-morrow. Some krigia done some days. Silene Antirrhina. Barberry open (probably two or more days at Lee’s). 

C. says he has seen a green snake. 

Examined my two yellowbirds’ nests of the 25th. Both are destroyed, —pulled down and torn to pieces probably by some bird, — though they  but just begun to lay. 

Large yellow and black butterfly. 

The leaves of kalmiana lily obvious. 

I have seen within three or four days two or three new warblers which I have not identified; one to-day, in the woods, all pure white beneath, with a full breast, and greenish-olive-yellow (?) above, with a duskier head and a slight crest muscicapa-like, on pines, etc., high; very small.(Perhaps young and female redstarts.) Also one all lemon-yellow beneath, except whitish vent, and apparently bluish above.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 28, 1855

Yesterday left my boat at the willow opposite this Cliff, the wind northwest. Now it is southeast, and I can sail back. See August 12, 1854 ("To Conantum by boat. To-day there is an uncommonly strong wind, against which I row, yet in shirt-sleeves, trusting to sail back. It is southwest.); August 24, 1854 ("A strong wind from the south-southwest, which I expect will waft me back.")

I see a tanager, . . . A remarkable contrast with the green pines. See May 23, 1853 ("How he enhances the wildness and wealth of the woods! That contrast of a red bird with the green pines and the blue sky! ...”); May 24, 1860 ("You can hardly believe that a living creature can wear such colors”).

The wood thrush . . . alone appears to make a business of singing, like a true minstrel.   See June 22, 1853  (“This is the only bird whose note affects me like music, affects the flow and tenor of my thought, my fancy and imagination.”)  See also  A Book of the Seasons,  The Wood Thrush

Is that one which I see . . . eye not very prominent with a white line around it, . . . with dashes on breast which I do not see clearly? See May 22, 1852 ("The female (and male?) wood thrush spotted the whole length of belly; the hermit thrush not so”) and note to April 24, 1856 ("[S]ee a brown bird flit, and behold my hermit thrush, with one companion, flitting silently through the birches. I saw the fox-color on his tail-coverts, as well as the brown streaks on the breast. ”).

Large yellow and black butterfly. See June 3, 1859 ("A large yellow butterfly . . . three and a half to four inches in expanse. Pale-yellow, the front wings crossed by three or four black bars; rear, or outer edge, of all wings widely bordered with black, and some yellow behind it; a short black tail to each hind one, with two blue spots in front of two red-brown ones on the tail")

May 28. SeeA Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 28

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

How important the dark evergreens now seen through the haze in the distance contrasting with the thin-clad deciduous trees!

May 27, 2015

May 27.

P. M. —To Fair Haven Pond, taking boat opposite Puffer’s. 

Still a very strong wind from northerly, and hazy and rather cool for season. 

The fields now begin to wear the aspect of June, their grass just beginning to wave; the light-colored withered grass seen between the blades, foliage thickening and casting darker shadows over the meadows, elm-tree-tops thick in distance, deciduous trees rapidly investing evergreens, haze with the strong wind. How important the dark evergreens now seen through the haze in the distance  and contrasting with the gauze-like, as yet thin-clad deciduous trees! They are like solid protuberances of earth. 

A thrasher’s nest on the bare open ground with four eggs which were seen three days ago. The nest is as open and exposed as it well can be, lined with roots, on a slight ridge where a rail fence has been, some rods from any bush. 

Saw the yellow-legs on one side flying over the meadow against the strong wind and at first mistook it for a hawk. It appeared now quite brown, with its white rump; and, excepting for its bill and head, I should have taken it for a hawk; between the size of male harrier and the male pigeon hawk, or say the size of a dove. It alighted on the shore. And now again I think it must be the large one. 

The blue yellow-back or parti-colored warbler still, with the chestnut crescent on breast, near my Kalmia Swamp nest. 

See a painted turtle on a hill forty or fifty feet above river, probably laying eggs. 

Some mountain sumach has grown one inch, some not started; some button-bush three inches, some not started. The first must be put after the last. 

Myosotis stricta under Cliffs, how long? 

The meadow fragrance to-day. 

How interesting the huckleberries now generally in blossom on the knoll below the Cliff — countless wholesome red bells, beneath the fresh yellow green foliage! The berry-bearing vaccinium! It is a rich sight. 

Geranium at Bittern Cliff, apparently several days, -and Arabis rhomboidea there in meadow, apparently still longer — say seven or eight days; but I am doubtful about the “slender style tipped with a conspicuous stigma.” 

Carrion-flower a foot high. Crimson gall on a shrub oak. A loose-spiked sedge at Bittern Cliff Meadow, — forgot to bring, — a foot high.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 27, 1855

The fields now begin to wear the aspect of June, their grass just beginning to wave;. . . foliage thickening and casting darker shadows over the meadows, elm-tree-tops thick in distance, deciduous trees rapidly investing evergreens ... See May 27, 1853 ("A new season has commenced - summer - leafy June. The elms begin to droop and are heavy with shade."); May 22, 1855 ("The deciduous trees leafing begin to clothe or invest the evergreens.");  May 18, 1852 ("They are now being invested with the light, sunny, yellowish-green of the deciduous trees.").  See also May 19, 1860 ("The grass, especially the meadow-grasses, are seen to wave distinctly, and the shadows of the bright fair-weather cumuli are sweeping over them."); May 26, 1854 (At sight of this deep and dense field all vibrating with motion and light, winter recedes many degrees in my memory. . . . The season of grass, now everywhere green and luxuriant.”); May 28, 1858 (“These various shades of grass remind me of June.”); May 30, 1852 (Now is the summer come. . . . A day for shadows, even of moving clouds, over fields in which the grass is beginning to wave."); June 30, 1860 ("The foliage of deciduous trees is now so nearly as dark as evergreens that I am not struck by the contrast. The shadows under the edge of woods are less noticed now because the woods themselves are darker.")  See also note to June 6, 1855 ("The dark eye and shade of June").

A thrasher’s nest on the bare open ground with four eggs which were seen three days ago. See May 23, 1858 ("Brown thrasher's nest on ground, under a small tree, with four eggs"); May 28, 1855 ("I find the feathers apparently of a brown thrasher in the path, plucked since we passed here last night.");June 5, 1856 (" A brown thrasher’s nest with four eggs considerably developed, under a small white pine on the old north edge of the desert, lined with root-fibres.")
My Kalmia Swamp nest. . . . See May 26, 1855 ("What that neat song-sparrow-like nest of grass merely, in the wet sphagnum under the andromeda there, with three eggs, -- in that very secluded place, surrounded by the watery swamp and andromeda?")

Wading through Kalmia Swamp just to look at the leaves.

May 26

8 A. M. — By boat to Kalmia glauca and thence to scouring-rush. 

Again a strong cold wind from the north by west, turning up the new and tender pads. 

The young white lily pads are now red and crimson above, while greenish beneath. 

Nightshade dark-green shoots are eight inches long. Button-bush would commonly be said to begin to leaf. 

At Clamshell. Ranunculus acris and bulbosus pollen apparently about two or three days. Comandra pollen apparently two days there. Arenaria serpyllifolia and scleranthus, how long? 

White oak pollen. The oaks apparently shed pollen about four days later than last year; may be owing to the recent cold weather. 

Interrupted fern pollen the 23d; may have been a day or two. Cinnamon fern to-day. 

Checkerberry shoots one inch high. 

Carex stipata? Close-spiked sedge in Clamshell Meadow some time. 

Early willow on right beyond Hubbard’s Bridge leafed since 12th; say 19th or generally before button-bush.

At Kalmia Swamp.

Nemopanthes, apparently several days, and leaf say before tupelo. White spruce pollen one or two days at least, and now begins to leaf. 

To my surprise the Kalmia glauca almost all out; perhaps began with rhodora. A very fine flower, the more interesting for being early. The leaf say just after the lambkill. 

I was wading through this white spruce swamp just to look at the leaves. The more purple rhodora rose here and there above the small andromeda, so that I did not at first distinguish the K. glauca. When I did, probably my eyes at first confounded it with the lambkill, and I did not remember that this would not bloom for some time. There were a few leaves just faintly started. 

But at last my eyes and attention both were caught by those handsome umbels of the K. glauca, rising, one to three together, at the end of bare twigs, six inches or more above the level of the andromeda, etc., together with the rhodora. The rhodora did not accompany it into the more open and level and wet parts, where was andromeda almost alone.

Umbels, one and one half inches [in] diameter, of five to eighteen flowers on red threads three quarters to an inch long, at first deep rose-color, after pale rose. Twigs bare except two or three small old leaves close to the end of the dry-looking twigs. Flowers not arranged in whorls about the twig, but rising quite above it. The larger flowers about nine-sixteenths inch diameter. Flowers somewhat larger, methinks, and more terminal than lambkill. The whole about two feet high in sphagnum. 

The lambkill is just beginning to be flower-budded.

What that neat song-sparrow-like nest of grass merely, in the wet sphagnum under the andromeda there, with three eggs, -- in that very secluded place, surrounded by the watery swamp and andromeda --  from which the bird stole like a mouse under the andromeda? Vide egg. It is narrower and more pointed at one end and lighter, a little, -- the brown less confluent, -- than that of the song sparrow with one spot on breast which took from ivy tree tuft. The last is bluish-white very thickly spotted and blotched with brown. Four eggs first seen, I think, the 22d.

Swamp-pink leaf before lambkill. A mosquito. Lupine in house from Fair Haven Hill, and probably in field.

At the screech owl’s nest I now find two young slumbering, almost uniformly gray above, about five inches long, with little dark-grayish tufts for incipient horns (?). Their heads about as broad as their bodies. I handle them without their stirring or opening their eyes. There are the feathers of a small bird and the leg of the Mus leucopus in the nest. 

The partridge which on the 12th had left three cold eggs covered up with oak leaves is now sitting on eight. She apparently deserted her nest for a time and covered it. 

Already the mouse-ear down begins to blow in the fields and whiten the grass, together with the bluets.

In Conant’s thick wood on the White-Pond-ward lane, hear the evergreen-forest note, but commonly, at a distance, only the last notes — a fine sharp té te'. The tanager? 

See a beautiful blue-backed and long-tailed pigeon sitting daintily on a low white pine limb.

I perceive no new life in the pipes (Equisetum hyemale), except that some are flower-budded at top and may open in a week, and on pulling them up I find a new one just springing from the base at root. The flower—bud is apparently on those dry-looking last year’s plants which I thought had no life in them.

Returning, I lay on my back again in Conant’s thick wood. Saw a redstart over my head there; black with a sort of brick red on sides of breast, spot on wing, and under root of tail. Note heard once next day, at Kalmia Swamp, somewhat like aveet a'veet aveet a'veet. 

In the meanwhile hear another note, very smart and somewhat sprayey, rasping, tshrip tshrip tshrip tshrip, or five or six times with equal force each time. The bird hops near, directly over my head. It is black, with a large white mark forward on wings and a fiery orange throat, above and below eye, and line on crown, yellowish beneath, white vent, forked tail, dusky legs and bill; holds its wings (which are light beneath) loosely. It inclines to examine about the lower branches of the white pines or midway up. The Blackbumian warbler very plainly; whose note Nuttall knows nothing about. 

Two-leaved Solomon’s-seal pollen not long in most places. Ranunculus recurvatus at Corner Spring up several days at least; pollen. 

Trillium pollen maybe several days. Arum, how long? The Ranunculus Purshii in that large pool in the Holden Swamp Woods makes quite a show at a little distance now. 

See to-day (and saw the 23d) a larger peetweet like bird on the shore, with longer, perhaps more slender, wings, black or blackish without white spots; all white beneath; and when it goes off it flies higher. Is it not the Totanus solitarius, which Brown found at Goose Pond? 

I think that the red-fruited choke-berry has shed pollen about a day, though I have not examined. The leaves are a little downy beneath and the common peduncle and the pedicels stout and quite hairy, while the black-fruited is smooth and gloossy.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 26, 1855

Saw a redstart over my head there; black with a sort of brick red on sides of breast. See A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The American Redstart

The Blackbumian warbler. See A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Blackburnian Warbler

But at last my eyes and attention both were caught by those handsome umbels of the K. glauca. See November 4, 1858 ("Objects are concealed from our view not so much because they are out of the course of our visual ray (continued) as because there is no intention of the mind and eye toward them. We do not realize how far and widely, or how near and narrowly, we are to look. The greater part of the phenomena of nature are for this reason concealed to us all our lives.. . . We cannot see anything until we are possessed with the idea of it, and then we can hardly see anything else."); January 9, 1855 ("Make a splendid discovery this afternoon. Walking through Holden’s white spruce swamp, I see peeping above the snow-crust some slender delicate evergreen shoots . . . the Kalmia glauca var.rosmarinifolia.")

May 26. See  A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 26

A season for nests and eggs.

May 25.

May 25, 2014

A rather warm night the last; window slightly open. Hear buzz of flies in the sultryish morning air on awaking. 

8 A. M. - To Hill. 

Late rose shoots, two inches, say a fortnight since. Salix nigra pollen, a day at least. 

Wood pewee. 

Apparently yellowbirds’ nests just completed —one by stone bridge causeway, another on birch by mud turtle meadow. 

Veronica peregrina in Mackay’s strawberries, how long? 

Most of the robins’ nests I have examined this year had three eggs, clear bluish green. A chip-bird’s nest on a balm-of-Gilead, eight feet high, between the main stem and a twig or two, with four very pale blue-green eggs with a sort of circle of brown-black spots about larger end. 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. Red-wings now generally beginning to lay. 

Fever-root one foot high and more, say a fortnight or three weeks. 

Scared a screech owl out of an apple tree on hill; flew swiftly off at first like a pigeon woodpecker and lit near by facing me; was instantly visited and spied at by a brown thrasher; then flew into a hole high in a hickory near by, the thrasher following close to the tree. It was reddish or ferruginous. 

Choke cherry pollen on island, apparently two or three days. 

Hemlock pollen, probably to-morrow; some in house to-day; say to-day; not yet leafing. 

Aralia nudicaulis, perhaps two days pollen. 

Cornus florida, no bloom. Was there year before last? Does it not flower every other year? Its leaf, say, just after C. sericea. 

Tupelo leaf before button-bush; maybe a week now. Red oak pollen, say a day or two before black. Swamp white oak pollen. 

River at summer level, four inches below long stone. Grass patches conspicuous, and flags and Equisetum limosum and pontederia (eight inches high), and white lily pads now (after yellow) red above, and purplish polygonum leaves in beds above water. 

For some days the handsome phalanxes of the Equisetum limosum have attracted me. The button-bush hardly yet generally begun to leaf. Critchicrotches in prime. 

Heard the first regular bullfrog’s trump on the 18th; none since. Juniper, plucked yesterday, sheds pollen in house to-day, and probably in field. Is our white willow Gray’s var. 2d, coerulea? 

The golden robin keeps whistling something like Eat it, Potter, eat it! 

Cares exilis river-shore opposite Wheeler’s gate, six inches high, but the culm smooth —some time. 

Is that sweet-scented vernal grass just begun to bloom at celtis shore? Fir balsam begun to leaf —with flower. Cottony aphides on white pines. 

Hear a quail and the summer spray frog, amid the ring of toads.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 25, 1855

Cornus florida, no bloom. . . .Does it not flower every other year? See May 22, 1856 ("The Cornus florida does not bloom this year. . .")

Heard the first regular bullfrog’s trump on the 18th; none since.  . . . See May 25, 1852 ("I hear the first troonk of a bullfrog.”)

Is that sweet-scented vernal grass just begun to bloom at celtis shore? See May 27, 1857 ("I perceived that rare meadow fragrance on the 25th. Is it not the sweet-scented vernal grass? ")

Hear a quail and the summer spray frog, amid the ring of toads. See May 25, 1859 ("Hear within a day or two what I call the sprayey note of the toad, different and later than its early ring.");May 25, 1851 (“I hear the dreaming of the frogs. ") ; May 25, 1860 ("5 P.M. the toads ring loud and numerously, as if invigorated by this little moisture and coolness.”) See also May 13, 1860 ("It is so warm that I hear the peculiar sprayey note of the toad generally at night."); May 16, 1853 ("Nature’appears to have passed a crisis. . .. The sprayey dream of the toad has a new sound");June 12, 1855 (“I hear the toad, which I have called “spray frog” falsely, still. . . .A peculiarly rich, sprayey dreamer, now at 2 P. M.! . . . This rich, sprayey note possesses all the shore. It diffuses itself far and wide over the water and enters into every crevice of the noon, and you cannot tell whence it proceeds”); Compare May 25, 1851 ("Now, at 8.30 o'clock P.M., I hear the dreaming of the frogs.”); May 25, 1852 ("I hear the first troonk of a bullfrog.”); And see also June 13, 1851 ("The different frogs mark the seasons pretty well,- the peeping hyla, the dreaming frog, and the bullfrog.")

554th page of Gray

May 24. 

A. M. -— To Beck Stow’s. 

Buttonwood not open. Celandine pollen. Butternut pollen, apparently a day or two. 

Black oak pollen yesterday, at least. Scarlet oak the same, but a little later. The staminate flowers of the first are on long and handsome tassels for three or four inches along the extremities of last year’s shoots, depending five inches (sometimes six) by four in width and quite dense and thick. 

The scarlet oak tassels are hardly half as long; the leaves, much greener and smoother and now somewhat wilted, emit a sweet odor, which those of the black do not. Both these oaks are apparently more forward at top, where I cannot see them.

Mountain-ash open apparently yesterday.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

In woods the chestnut-sided warbler, with clear yellow crown and yellow on wings and chestnut sides. It is exploring low trees and bushes, often along stems about young leaves, and frequently or after short pauses utters its somewhat summer-yellowbird like note, say, tchip tchip, chip chip (quick), tche tche ter tchéa, —— sprayey and rasping and faint. Another, further off. 

Bog Rosemary

Andromeda Polifolia now in prime, but the leaves are apt to be blackened and unsightly, and the flowers, though delicate, have a feeble and sickly look, rose white, somewhat crystalline. Its shoots or new leaves, unfolding, say when it flowered or directly after, now one inch long. 

Buck-bean just fairly begun, though probably first the 18th; a handsome flower, but already when the raceme is only half blown, some of the lowest flowers are brown and withered, deforming it. What a pity!

Juniperus repens pollen not even yet; apparently to-morrow. Apparently put back by the cold weather.

Beach plum pollen probably several days in some places; and leaves begun as long. 

Hear a rose-breasted grosbeak. At first think it a tanager, but soon I perceive its more clear and instrumental — should say whistle, if one could whistle like a flute; a noble singer, reminding me also of a robin; clear, loud and flute-like; on the oaks, hill side south of Great Fields. Black all above except white on wing, with a triangular red mark on breast but, as I saw, all white beneath this. Female quite different, yellowish olivaceous above, more like a muscicapa. Song not so sweet as clear and strong. Saw it fly off and catch an insect like a flycatcher. 

An early thorn pollen (not Crus-Galli) apparently yesterday. 

Pick up a pellet in the wood-path, of a small bird’s feathers, one inch in diameter and loose; nothing else with them; some slate, some yellow. 

Young robins some time hatched. 

Hear a purple finch sing more than one minute without pause, loud and rich, on an elm over the street. Another singing very faintly on a neighboring elm. 

Conant fever-bush had not begun to leaf the 12th. 

I seem to have seen, among sedges, etc., (1) the Carex Pennsylvanica; also (2) another similar, but later and larger, in low ground with many more pistillate flowers nearly a foot high, three-sided and rough culm (the first is smooth); also (3) an early sedge at Lee’s Cliff with striped and pretty broad leaves not rigid, perhaps on 554th page of Gray; (4) the rigid tufted are common in meadows, with cut-grass-like leaves. Call it C. stricta, though not yet more than a foot high or eighteen inches. 

Of Juncacea, perhaps Luzula campestris, the early umbelled purple-leaved, low. 

And, apparently, of grasses, foxtail grass, on C. ’s bank. 

Naked azalea shoots more than a week old, and other leaves, say a week at least. 

P. M. —— To Cliffs. 

Wind suddenly changes to south this forenoon, and for first time I think of a thin coat. It is very hazy in consequence of the sudden warmth after cold, and I cannot see the mountains. 

Chinquapin pollen. Lupine not yet. Black scrub oak tassels, some reddish, some yellowish. 

Just before six, see in the northwest the first summer clouds, methinks, piled in cumuli with silvery edges, and westward of them a dull, rainy looking cloud advancing and shutting down to the horizon; later, lightning in west and south and a little rain. 

Another kind of frog spawn at Beck Stow’s.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 24, 1855

In woods the chestnut-sided warbler, with clear yellow crown and yellow on wings and chestnut sides. . . .See May 23, 1857 ("It appears striped slate and black above, white beneath, yellow-crowned with black side-head, two yellow bars on wing, white side-head below the black, black bill, and long chestnut streak on side. Its song lively . . .")

Andromeda Polifolia now in prime. . . . See May 24, 1854 ("Surprised to find the Andromeda Polifolia in bloom and apparently past its prime. . .A timid botanist would never pluck it.")

Just before six, see in the northwest the first summer clouds, methinks, piled in cumuli with silvery edges, and westward of them a dull, rainy looking cloud advancing and shutting down to the horizon. See May 25, 1860 "I see in the east the first summer shower cloud, a distinct cloud above, and all beneath to the horizon the general slate-color of falling rain.") and note to May 11, 1854 ("There is a low, dark, blue-black arch, crescent-like, in the horizon, sweeping the distant earth there with a dusky, rainy brush.”)

May 24. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 24 

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

The deciduous trees leafing begin to clothe or invest the evergreens.

May 22, 2015

May 22.

Cerasus pumila in full bloom. How long?
Bank swallows -- ashy-brown above -- have holes at Deep Cut. Have not surely distinguished them before, this season. 

 May 22, 2015

Sage willow may have begun to leaf a week or ten days ago or more. 

Cuckoo. 

Scared up a nighthawk—from the white on wings—amid the dry leaves on the edge of a copse on Fair Haven Hill, where apparently it had been scratching, the leaves looking as if they had been turned up. 

Linaria Canadensis on Cliffs open. 

The deciduous trees leafing begin to clothe or invest the evergreens. The oaks are a little more than in the gray. 

Huckleberry open, possibly yesterday. 

Fringed polygala

Fringed polygala, how long? 

Herd’s-grass (?) on Channing’s bank, pollen. 



Lupine not open yet for two or three days. Not yet chinquapin oak.

H.D. Thoreau, Journal, May 22, 1855

Deciduous trees "investing" the evergreens: See May 18, 1852 ("They are now being invested with the light, sunny, yellowish-green of the deciduous trees.")

Fringed polygala. See May 27, 1852 ("The fringed polygala near the Corner Spring is a delicate flower, with very fresh tender green leaves and red-purple blossoms; beautiful from the contrast of its clear red-purple flowers with its clear green leaves.") See also GoBotany, Polygala paucifolia (fringed milkwort, gaywings).  See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,The Polygala

Linaria Canadensis:  A native annual or biennial that prefers highly disturbed areas with sandy soils. Its attractive light-blue to blue-violet flowers have a white throat and a nectar spur. (Nuttallanthus canadensisis, Blue Toadflax,, Canada Toadflax. Old-field Toadflax)

Bluets whiten the fields, and violets are now perhaps in prime.

May 21. 

P. M. —To Island. 

Salix nigra leafs. 

Is that plump blue-backed, rufous rumped swallow the cliff swallow, flying with barn swallows, etc., over the river? Nuttall apparently so describes it. It dashes within a foot of me. 

Lambkill leaf, a day or two. Choke-berry pollen; perhaps a day or more elsewhere. Viola palmata pretty common, apparently two or three days. Some button bush begins to leaf. Cranberry well started; shoots three quarters of an inch. 

dog-tooth violet
May 21, 2017

Bluets whiten the fields, and violets are now perhaps in prime. 

Very cold to-day; cold weather, indeed, from the 20th to 23d inclusive. Sit by fires, and sometimes wear a greatcoat and expect frosts.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 21, 1855

Bluets whiten the fields, and violets are now perhaps in prime. See May 7,1860 ("I saw bluets whitening the fields yesterday a quarter of a mile off. They are to the sere brown grass what the shad-bush is now to the brown and bare sprout lands.")
Very cold to-day; cold weather, indeed . . . See May 21, 1860 (“Cold, at 11 A.M. 50°; and sit by a fire”)

The clump of golden willows west of new stone bridge is very handsome now seen from hill.

May 18.

P. M. — Boat to Nut Meadow. 

MAY 18, 2015

Large devil’s-needle. 

Sassafras well open. How long? Celtis will probably shed pollen to-morrow; shoots already an inch long. Sorrel pollen. 

First veery strain. 

Green-briar leafed several days. Veronica serpylli folia well out (how long?) at Ash Bank Spring. 


See the yellow-legs feeding on shore. Legs not bright-yellow. Goes off with the usual whistle; also utters a long monotonous call as it is standing on the shore, not so whistling. Am inclined to think it the lesser yellow-legs (though I think the only one we see). Yet its bill appears quite two inches long. Is it curved up? 

Observe a blackbird’s (red-wing’s) nest finished. At Clamshell a bay-wing sparrow’s nest, four eggs (young half hatched) -- some black-spotted, others not.

These last warmer days a great many fishes dart away from close to the shore, where they seem to lie now more than ever. I see some darting about and rippling the water there with large back fins out, either pouts or suckers (not pickerel certainly). Apparently their breeding-season arrived. Is not this where the fish hawks get them? 

Rhodora; probably some yesterday. Black scrub oak pollen. Fir balsam pollen; say begins to leaf at same time. 

The clump of golden willows west of new stone bridge is very handsome now seen from hill, with its light-yellowish foliage, because the stems of the trees are seen through it.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 18, 1855

Tell tale, great 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. ...")

The clump of golden willows west of new stone bridge is very handsome now seen from hill, with its light-yellowish foliage. See May 18, 1853 ("A singular effect produced by a mass of ferns at a little distance, some rods square, their light yellow green tops seen above the dark masses of their fruit. ")