The year is but a succession of days,
and I see that I could assign some office to each day
which, summed up, would be the history of the year.
Henry Thoreau, August 24, 1852
Suddenly zigzag
overhead the first bat comes
out and disappears.
A dandelion
Distinct and hollow
tapping of a woodpecker --
the water is smooth.
Sitting by the shore
Our moods vary from week to week, with the winds and the temperature and the revolution of the seasons. It is impossible to remember a week ago. May 9, 1852
Cattle going up country for ten days past. You must keep your gate shut. May 9, 1860
Saw on Mr. Emerson's firs several parti-colored warblers or finch creepers (Sylvia Americana) a small blue and yellow bird somewhat like but smaller than the indigo-bird; quite tame about the buds of the firs now showing red; often head downward. Heard no note. He says it has been here a day or two. May 9, 1853
The parti-colored warbler is very common and musical there, — my tweezer-bird, – making the screep screep screep note. It is an almost incessant singer and a very handsomely marked bird. . . and holding up its head, utters its humble notes, like ah twze twze twze, or ah twze twze twze twze. May 9, 1858
New days, then, have come, ushered in by the warbling vireo, yellowbird, Maryland yellow-throat, and small pewee. May 9, 1853
The parti-colored warbler is very common and musical there, — my tweezer-bird, – making the screep screep screep note. It is an almost incessant singer and a very handsomely marked bird. . . and holding up its head, utters its humble notes, like ah twze twze twze, or ah twze twze twze twze. May 9, 1858
New days, then, have come, ushered in by the warbling vireo, yellowbird, Maryland yellow-throat, and small pewee. May 9, 1853
Maryland yellow-throat. Aspen leaves one inch over. Hear stake-driver. Black and white creeper's fine note. Er-te-ter-twee, or evergreen-forest note. Golden-crowned thrush note. May 9, 1857
Hear the warbling vireo and oven-bird. May 9, 1859.
Black and white creeper's fine note. May 9, 1857
Oven-bird, how long? May 9, 1860
The tapping of a woodpecker sounds distinct and hollow this still cloudy day. The water is smooth. May 9, 1860
Hear, methinks, a white throated sparrow (?) sing very much like the beginning of a catbird’s song. Could see no other bird. Thought it a catbird at first. See several of these sparrows yet. May 9, 1855
The robin's strain is less remarkable. May 9, 1853
I no longer hear the chill lill of the blue snowbird or the sweet strains of the fox-colored sparrow and the tree sparrow. May 9, 1853
May 9, 2016
The first thunder this afternoon. May 9, 1859
Sugar maple blossoms are now a tender yellow. May 9, 1860
A large red maple just begun to leaf -- its keys an inch and a half long. May 9, 1855
I smell the blossoms of the willows, . . . a quarter of a mile to windward. May 9, 1852
The first shad-bush, Juneberry, or service-berry (Amclanchier canadensis), in blossom. May 9, 1852
I see a second amelanchier with a distinct pink or rosaceous tinge like an apple blossom. May 9, 1860
Cornus alternifolia and paniculata begin to leaf. May 9, 1855
I see a second amelanchier with a distinct pink or rosaceous tinge like an apple blossom. May 9, 1860
Cornus alternifolia and paniculata begin to leaf. May 9, 1855
The young birch leaves reflect the light in the sun. May 9, 1852
See black birch bloom fallen effete. May 9, 1859.
The first Viola pedata and also, in a low place, the first Viola cucullata. May 9, 1852
The Viola ovata is one of the minutest of spring flowers, — two leaves and a blossom-bud showing the blue close to the earth. What haste to push up and open its lesser azure to the greater above! Such a disproportion of blossom to the leaves! Almost literally a pretty delicate blue flower bursting forth from the scurf of the earth. May 9, 1852
The first Viola pedata and also, in a low place, the first Viola cucullata. May 9, 1852
The Viola ovata is one of the minutest of spring flowers, — two leaves and a blossom-bud showing the blue close to the earth. What haste to push up and open its lesser azure to the greater above! Such a disproportion of blossom to the leaves! Almost literally a pretty delicate blue flower bursting forth from the scurf of the earth. May 9, 1852
A dandelion perfectly gone to seed, a complete globe, a system in itself. May 9, 1858
Thousands of dandelions along the meadow by the Mill Brook in prime. May 9, 1860
That early narrow curved-winged insect on ice and river which I thought an ephemera he says is a Sialis, or maybe rather a Perla. May 9, 1854.
Sat on end of Long Wharf. As I watched the various craft successively unfurling their sails and getting to sea, I felt more than for many years inclined to let the wind blow me also to other climes. May 9, 1854.
At sundown paddled up the river. The pump-like note of a stake-driver from the fenny place across the Lee meadow. May 9, 1853
That slumbrous snoring croak far less ringing and musical than the toad' s (which is occasionally heard) now comes up from the meadows edge. May 9, 1853
See two Rana halecina. They have the green halo, but are plain brown between the spots on the back. May 9, 1858
After sitting there a little while, I count the noses of twenty frogs within a couple of rods, which have ventured to come to the surface again, — so quietly that I did not see one come up. May 9, 1860
I love to paddle now at evening when the water is smooth and the air begins to be warm. May 9, 1853
The first bat goes suddenly zigzag overhead through the dusky air; comes out of the dusk and disappears into it. May 9, 1853
Now at starlight that same nighthawk or snipe squeak is heard but no hovering. May 9, 1853
This has been almost the first warm day; none yet quite so warm. Walking to the Cliffs this afternoon I noticed on Fair Haven Hill a season stillness as I looked over the distant budding forest and heard the buzzing of a fly. May 9, 1853
Another fine day. May 9, 1857
The blue sky is a distant reflection of the azure serenity that looks out from under a human brow.May 9, 1853
*****
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, To Know Nature's Moods
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The world can never be more beautiful than now
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Leaf-Out
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Pickerel frog (Rana palustris)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Rana Halecina in Spring
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Shad-bush, Juneberry, or Service-berry
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Willows on the Causeway
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Aspens
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Birches.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Red Maple
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Violets
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Fox-colored Sparrow;
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Tree Sparrow
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, White-throated Sparrow
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Winter Birds
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Robin in Spring
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Small Pewee
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Oven-bird
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Black and White Creeper
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Parti-Colored (Parula) Warbler
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Pigeon Woodpecker (flicker)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, American Bittern (the Stake-Diver)
Our moods vary from week to week, with the winds and the temperature and the revolution of the seasons. See April 24, 1859 ("The moods and thoughts of man are revolving just as steadily and incessantly as nature’s.”); September 24, 1859 ("I would know when in the year to expect certain thoughts and moods”); January 23, 1858 (“It is in vain to write on the seasons unless you have the seasons in you.”); October 26, 1857 ("The seasons and all their changes are in me. ... My moods are thus periodical, not two days in my year alike.”); December 16, 1853 (" Would you be well, see that you are attuned to each mood of nature.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, To Know Nature's Moods
I no longer hear the chill lill of the blue snowbird or the sweet strains of the fox-colored sparrow and the tree sparrow. See April 17, 1855 ("The fox-colored sparrows seem to be gone, and I suspect that most of the tree sparrows and F. hyemalis, at least, went yesterday.") See also A Book of the Seasons,, by Henry Thoreau, the Fox-colored Sparrow; A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Tree Sparrow and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Winter Birds
The first thunder this afternoon. See May 11, 1859 (“In that first thunder-shower, the evening of the 9th, the grass evidently erected itself and grew darker, as it were instantaneously”); see also May 10, 1857 ("Before night a sudden shower with some thunder and lightning; the first.”); May 11, 1854 (“It is surprising what an electrifying effect this shower appears to have had. It is like the christening of the summer. I suspect that summer weather may be always ushered in in a similar manner, — thunder-shower, rainbow, smooth water, and warm night”); May 12, 1858 (“I see now, as I go forth on the river, the first summer shower coming up in the northwest, a dark and well defined cloud with rain falling sheaf-like from it, . . .The thunder-cloud is like the ovary of a perfect flower. Other showers are merely staminiferous or barren. There are twenty barren to one fertile. It is not commonly till thus late in the season that the fertile are seen. In the thunder-cloud, so distinct and condensed, there is a positive energy, and I notice the first as the bursting of the pollen-cells in the flower of the sky.”)
Several parti-colored warblers or finch creepers (Sylvia Americana) a small blue and yellow bird quite tame about the buds of the firs now showing red; often head downward. Heard no note. See May 9, 1858 ("The parti-colored warbler . . .— my tweezer-bird, – making the screep screep screep note. It is an almost incessant singer . . . utters its humble notes, like ah twze twze twze, or ah twze twze twze twze."). See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the parti-colored warbler (Sylvia Americana)
The parti-colored warbler — my tweezer-bird. See May 18, 1856 ("A Sylvia Americana, — parti-colored warbler, — in the Holden Wood, sings a, tshrea tshrea tshrea, tshre’ tshritty tshrit’." and note to May 13, 1856 ("The tweezer-bird or Sylvia Americana. . . . the parti-colored warbler, and was that switter switter switter switter swit also by it?.”) See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Parti-Colored (Parula) Warbler (Sylvia Americana)
As I watched the various craft successively unfurling their sails and getting to sea, I felt more than for many years inclined to let the wind blow me also to other climes. See December 25, 1853 ("When I go to Boston, I go naturally straight through the city down to the end of Long Wharf and look off")
That early narrow curved-winged insect on ice and river which I thought an ephemera he says is a Sialis, or maybe rather a Perla. See March 22, 1856 ("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 24, 1857 ("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 17, 1858 ("As usual, I have seen for some weeks on the ice these peculiar (perla?) insects with long wings and two tails."); March 7, 1859 ("I also see — but their appearance is a regular early spring, or late winter, phenomenon — a great many of those slender black-bodied insects from one quarter to (with the feelers) one inch long, with six legs and long gray wings, two feelers before, and two forks or tails like feelers for convenience Perla."); March 3, 1860 ("I see one of those gray-winged (long and slender) perla-like insects by the waterside this afternoon.")
Says the shad-flies (with streamers and erect wings ) are ephemeræ. See June 2, 1854 "The whole atmosphere over the river was full of shad-flies.") . . .It was a great flight of ephemera"); June 9, 1854 (" The air is now full of shad-flies, and there is an incessant sound made by the fishes leaping for their evening meal.”); June 8, 1856 (“My boat being by chance at the same place where it was in ’54, I noticed a great flight of ephemera”); June 9, 1856 ("Again, about seven, the ephemera came out, in numbers as many as last night, ... and the fishes leap as before.")
The first Viola pedata and also, in a low place, the first Viola cucullata. That I observed the first of May was a V. ovata, a variety of sagittate. . . See 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.”). See also A Book of the Seasons,by Henry Thoreau,The Violets
The tapping of a woodpecker sounds distinct and hollow this still cloudy day. See March 11, 1859 (“But methinks the sound of the woodpecker tapping is as much a spring note as any these mornings; it echoes peculiarly in the air of a spring morning.”); April 27, 1856 ("The tapping of a woodpecker is made a more remarkable and emphatic sound by the hollowness of the trunk, the expanse of water which conducts the sound, and the morning hour at which I commonly hear it.”); April 14, 1856 ("Hear the flicker’s cackle on the old aspen, and his tapping sounds afar over the water. Their tapping resounds thus far, with this peculiar ring and distinctness, because it is a hollow tree they select to play on, as a drum or tambour. It is a hollow sound which rings distinct to a great distance, especially over water."); March 13, 1855 ("I hear the rapid tapping of the woodpecker from over the water."); March 30, 1854 ("At the Island I see and hear this morning the cackle of a pigeon woodpecker at the hollow poplar; had heard him tapping distinctly from my boat's place."); March 15, 1854 ("I hear that peculiar, interesting loud hollow tapping of a woodpecker from over the water.")' March 18, 1853 ("The tapping of the woodpecker about this time.”). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Pigeon Woodpecker (flicker)
Hear, methinks, a white throated sparrow (?) sing. See April 25, 1855 ("Hear a faint cheep and at length detect the white throated sparrow, the handsome and well-marked bird . . . with a yellow spot on each side of the front, . . . I first saw the white-throated sparrow at this date last year. “); see also A Book of the Seasons, the White-throated Sparrow
The pump-like note of a stake-driver from the fenny place across the Lee meadow. See May 9, 1857 ("Hear stake-driver"), See also April 24, 1854 (" As I stand still listening . . . I hear the loud and distinct pump-a-gor of a stake-driver. Thus he announces himself.”). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, American Bittern (the Stake-Diver)
That slumbrous snoring croak far less ringing and musical than the toad's now comes up from the meadows edge. See May 8. 1857 ("The full moon rises, and I paddle by its light, It is an evening for the soft-snoring, purring frogs (which I suspect to be Rana palustris).. . . Their croak is very fine or rapid, and has a soft, purring sound at a little distance") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,The Pickerel frog (Rana palustris orLithobates palustris)
I count noses of twenty frogs. . . . See March 27, 1853 (Half an hour standing perfectly still to hear the frogs croak.)
Maryland yellow-throat. See May 9, 1853 ("New days, then, have come, ushered in by the warbling vireo, yellowbird, Maryland yellow-throat, and small pewee")
Cattle going up country for ten days past. You must keep your gate shut. See April 30, 1860 ("Cattle begin to go up-country, and every weekday, especially Mondays, to this time [sic] May 7th, at least, the greatest droves to-day. Methinks they will find slender picking up there for a while."). See also May 6, 1855 ("Road full of cattle going up country.”); May 7, 1856 ("For a week the road has been full of cattle going up country. "); May 8, 1854 ("I hear the voices of farmers driving their cows past to their up-country pastures now."); May 10, 1852 ("This Monday the streets are full of cattle being driven up-country, — cows and calves and colts.")
That slumbrous snoring croak far less ringing and musical than the toad's now comes up from the meadows edge. See May 8. 1857 ("The full moon rises, and I paddle by its light, It is an evening for the soft-snoring, purring frogs (which I suspect to be Rana palustris).. . . Their croak is very fine or rapid, and has a soft, purring sound at a little distance") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,The Pickerel frog (Rana palustris orLithobates palustris)
I count noses of twenty frogs. . . . See March 27, 1853 (Half an hour standing perfectly still to hear the frogs croak.)
Maryland yellow-throat. See May 9, 1853 ("New days, then, have come, ushered in by the warbling vireo, yellowbird, Maryland yellow-throat, and small pewee")
Cattle going up country for ten days past. You must keep your gate shut. See April 30, 1860 ("Cattle begin to go up-country, and every weekday, especially Mondays, to this time [sic] May 7th, at least, the greatest droves to-day. Methinks they will find slender picking up there for a while."). See also May 6, 1855 ("Road full of cattle going up country.”); May 7, 1856 ("For a week the road has been full of cattle going up country. "); May 8, 1854 ("I hear the voices of farmers driving their cows past to their up-country pastures now."); May 10, 1852 ("This Monday the streets are full of cattle being driven up-country, — cows and calves and colts.")
May 9, 2015
If you make the least correctobservation of nature this year,you will have occasion to repeat itwith illustrations the next,and the season and life itself is prolonged.A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,, I love you like I love the skyA Book of the Seasons, by Henry ThoreauA Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 9"A book, each page written in its own season,out-of-doors, in its own locality.”~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2022
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