Pine pollen washed up on the northwest side of Walden Pond

June 21.

June 21, 2016
White Pine

P. M. — To Walden. 

Much pine pollen is washed up on the northwest side of the pond. Must it not have come from pines at a distance? 

Very hot day, as was yesterday, -— 98° at 2 P. M., 99° at 3, and 128° in sun. 

Nighthawks numerously squeak at 5 P. M. and boom. See them fly low and touch the water like swallows over Walden. 

Find a dozen of the hydropeltis out, apparently several days. 

My canoe birch wine smells and tastes like mead considerably. All my birch wines are now more acid and very good indeed with sugar. Am surprised to see it effervesce, all white with white sugar only, like a soda water.


H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 21, 1856



Much pine pollen is washed up on the northwest side of the pond. Must it not have come from pines at a distance? . . . See June 21, 1850 ("The flowers of the white pine are now in their prime, but I see none of their pollen on the pond."); June 21, 1860 (". . . it suggested to me that the air must be full of this fine dust at this season, that it must be carried to great distances, and its presence might be detected remote from pines by examining the edges of bodies of water ... the lakes detect for us thus the presence of the pine pollen in the atmosphere. They are our pollinometers. ") See also June 20, 1858 ("Walking in the white pine wood there, I find that my shoes and, indeed, my hat are covered with the greenish-yellow pollen of the white pines, which is now being shed abundantly and covers like a fine meal all the plants and shrubs of the forest floor."); June 25, 1852 ("I am too late for the white pine flowers. The cones are half an inch long and greenish, and the male flowers effete.”)

Nighthawks fly low and touch the water like swallows. . . See May 31, 1856 ("As I return in the dusk, many nighthawks, with their great spotted wings, are circling low over the river, as the swallows were when I went out. . . .')