I would make a chart of our life,
know why just this circle of creatures completes the world,
what kinds of birds come with what flowers.
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852
On the third or fourth of May
I saw a loon in the pond,
and during the first week of the month
I heard the whip-poor-will, the brown thrasher, the veery,
the wood pewee, the chewink, and other birds.
I had heard the wood thrush long before.
The phoebe had already come once more
and looked in at my door and window.
Walden
The sounds and sights of birds and flowers
heard and seen at seasons when they are fewest.
The whole North American forest
is being thus explored for insect food.
is being thus explored for insect food.
Each is visited by many kinds and
thus the equilibrium of
the insect and vegetable kingdom
is preserved.
thus the equilibrium of
the insect and vegetable kingdom
is preserved.
May 16, 1860
April 28. I hear to-day frequently the seezer seezer seezer of the black and white creeper. April 28, 1856
April 28. There are a great many myrtle-birds here, — they have been quite common for a week. April 28, 1855.
April 28. I see the myrtle-bird in the same sunny place, south of the Island woods, as formerly. Thus are the earliest seen each spring in some warm and calm place by the waterside, when it is cool and blustering elsewhere. April 28, 1858
April 28. The first myrtle-bird that I have noticed. April 28, 1859
May 1. I think I heard an oven-bird just now, - wicher wicher whicher wich. . . . We have, then, flowers and the song of birds before the woods leaf out, -like poetry. May 1, 1852
May 1. See and hear chewink. . . .
See a thrasher.
May 1, 1859
May 2.The tea lee of the yellow-rump warbler in the street, at the end of a cool, rainy day. May 2, 1856
May 2. Summer yellowbird on the opening Salix alba .May 2, 1853
May 2. Summer yellowbird on the opening Salix alba .May 2, 1853
May 3. Bringing my glass to bear on it, found it to be
- pure white throat and beneath,
- yellow on sides of body or wings,
- greenish-yellow back and shoulders, a white or whitish ring about eyes,
- and a light mark along side of head,
- two white bars on wings,
- apparently black bill and
- dark or perhaps slate-colored (?) wings and above tail.
It surprised me by singing in a novel and powerful and rich strain. Yet it may be the white-eyed vireo (which I do not know), if it comes so early. Nuttall says it comes to Cambridge about the middle of April. May 3, 1858. See
May 9, 1858 ("I am now inclined to think it the solitary vireo.”)
May 4. A robin sings when I, in the house, cannot distinguish the earliest dawning from the full moon light. May 4, 1855
I yield the point to
the robin who sings his strain
when I think it night.
May 4.
Heard the tweezer note, or screeper note, of the particolored warbler, bluish above, yellow or orange throat and breast, white vent, and white on wings, neck above yellowish, going restlessly over the trees. May 4, 1858
May 5. See at Lee's a pewee (phoebe) building. She has just woven in, or laid on the edge, a fresh sprig of saxifrage in flower. I notice that phoebes will build in the same recess in a cliff year after year. . . . Think how many pewees must have built under the eaves of this cliff since pewees were created and this cliff itself built!! May 5, 1860
May 6. Hear the first warbling vireo this morning on the elms. This almost makes a summer. May 6, 1852
May 6
Hear near Second Division the er er twe, ter ter twe, evergreen-forest note. Bright-yellow head and shoulders and beneath, and dark legs and bill catching insects along base of pitch pine plumes, some, what creeper-like; very active and restless, darting from tree to tree; darts at and drives off a chickadee. I find I have thus described its colors last year at various times, viz.: black throat, this often with dark and light beneath; again, black streak from eyes, slate-colored back (?), forked tail, white beneath (?). . .
 |
Setophaga virens
(black-throated green warbler)
|
Is it black throated green? May 6, 1855
 |
Regulus calendula |
Hear at a distance a ruby(?)-crowned wren, so robin-like and spirited. After see one within ten or fifteen feet. Dark bill and legs, apparently dark olivaceous ashy head, a little whitish before and behind the full black eyes, ash breast, olive-yellow on primaries, with a white bar, dark tail and ends of wings, white belly and vent. Did not notice vermilion spot on hindhead. It darts off from apple tree for insects like a pewee, and returns to within ten feet of me as if curious. I think this the only Regulus I have ever seen. May 6, 1855
May 6.
Hear yellow-throat vireo, and probably some new warblers. May 6, 1859
May 7. The first small pewee sings now che-vet, or rather chirrups chevet, tche-vet — a rather delicate bird with a large head and two white bars on wings. May 7, 1852
May 7. One or more little warblers in the woods this morning are new to the season, myrtlebirds among them. For now, before the leaves, they begin to people the trees. The first wave of summer from the south. May 7, 1852
First wave of summer
from the south. Before the leaves,
birds people the trees.
May 7, 1852
Now I remember
the yellowbird comes when willows
begin to leaf out.
May 7. The woods now begin to ring with the woodland note of the oven-bird. May 7, 1853
A fit place for owls,
thick woods over white spruce swamp
where bog laurel grows.
May 7. I think I hear the redstart. May 7, 1856
May 8. A female red-wing. I have not seen any before.
May 8, 1854
May 8. Hear a yellowbird in the direction of the willows. Its note coarsely represented by che-che-che-char-char- char. May 8, 1854
May 8. Summer yellowbird. C. sees a chimney swallow. Indeed, several new birds have come, and many new insects, with the expanding leafets. Catbird. May 8, 1859
May 9.
See, in the Holden Swamp wood, the bird of May 3rd It has sly and inquisitive ways, holding down its head and looking at me at some distance off. It has a distinct white line along the bill and about the eyes, and no yellow there, as is said of the white-eyed vireo, and I am now inclined to think it the solitary vireo (?), whose song is not described, and which is considered rare. I should say it had a blue-slate head, and, I note, a distinct yellowish vent, which none of the vireos are allowed to have!! The sides of the body are distinctly yellow, but there is none at all on the throat or breast. May 9, 1858 ("I am now inclined to think it the solitary vireo.”)
May 9.
Hear the warbling vireo and oven-bird; yellow-throat vireo(?). May
9, 1859
May 10. Hear the snipe over the meadows this evening. May 10, 1851
May 10. All at once a strain that sounds like old times and recalls a hundred associations. Not at once do I remember that a year has elapsed since I heard it, and then the idea of the bobolink is formed in my mind. May 10, 1853
May 10.
See a kingbird . . .on a willow by the river, and hear higher the clear whistle of the oriole. New days, then, have come, ushered in by the warbling vireo, yellowbird, Maryland yellow-throat, and small pewee, and now made perfect by the twittering of the kingbird and the whistle of the oriole amid the elms, which are but just beginning to leaf out, thinking of his nest there, - if not already the bobolink. The warbling vireo promised warmer days, but the oriole ushers in summer heats.
May 10, 1853
 |
WILSON'S THRUSH or VEERY, Turdus Wilson,
The song of this species, although resembling that of the Wood Thrush in a great degree, is less powerful, and is composed of continued trills repeated with different variations, enunciated with great delicacy and mellowness, so as to be extremely pleasing to one listening to them in the dark solitudes where the sylvan songster resides. It now and then tunes its throat in the calm of evening, and is heard sometimes until after the day has closed. J.J. Audubon |
. . and, in the woods, the veery note.
May 10, 1853
May 10. Above the railroad bridge I see a kingfisher twice sustain himself in one place, about forty feet above the meadow, by a rapid motion of his wings, somewhat like a devil's-needle, not progressing an inch, apparently over a fish., May 10, 1854
May 10.
A yellow redpoll still. May 10, 1855
May 10.
Going down-town in the morning, I hear the warbling vireo, golden robin, catbird, and summer yellowbird. [Later] as I paddle along, hear the Maryland yellow-throat, the bobolink, the oven-bird, and the yellow-throated vireo. . . .It is remarkable how many new birds have come all at once to-day. The hollow-sounding note of the oven-bird is heard from the depth of the wood. The warbling vireo cheers the elms with a strain for which they must have pined. The trees, in respect to these new arrivers, have been so many empty music-halls. The oriole is seen darting like a bright flash with clear whistle from one tree-top to another over the street. The very catbird's mew in the copse harmonizes with the bare twigs, as it were shaming them into life and verdure, and soon he mounts upon a tree and is a new creature. Toward night wood thrush ennobles the wood and the world with his strain. May 10, 1858
May 10.
Hear in various woods the yorrick note of the veery.
May 10, 1858
May 11.
Now, some time after sunset, the robins scold and sing, the Maryland yellow-throat is heard amid the alders and willows by the waterside, and the peetweet and black birds, and sometimes a kingbird, and the tree-toad. May 11, 1854
May 11.
Was not that a bay-wing which I heard sing, — ah, twar twe twar, twit twit twit twit, twe? . . . I hear some kind of owl partially hooting now at 4 P.M., I know not whether far off or near. May 11, 1855
May 11. There are many swallows circling low over the river behind Monroe’s, — bank swallows, barn, republican, chimney, and white-bellied. These are all circling together a foot or two over the water, passing within ten or twelve feet of me in my boat. May 11, 1856
May 11.
The black and white creeper also is descending the oaks, etc., and uttering from time to time his seeser seeser seeser.
What a rich, strong striped blue-black (?) and white bird."
May 11, 1856
May 11. A partridge-nest, with eleven fresh eggs, at foot of a chestnut, one upon another. It is quite a deep cavity amid the leaves, with some feathers of the bird in it. May 11, 1859
May 11 Golden robin yesterday. May 11. 1859
May 12. Watch a black and white creeper from Bittern Cliff, a very neat and active bird, exploring the limbs on all sides and looking three or four ways almost at once for insects. Now and then it raises its head a little, opens its bill, and, without closing it, utters its faint seeser seeser seeser. May 12, 1855
May 12.
The brown thrasher is a powerful singer; he is a quarter of a mile off across the river, when he sounded within fifteen rods. May 12, 1855
May 12.
How suddenly the birds arrive after the storm, — even yesterday before it was fairly over, —as if they had foreseen its end! How much life the note of the bobolink imparts to the meadow! May 12, 1856
May 12.
I hear from across the fields the note of the bay-wing, Come here here there there quick quick quick or I'm gone (which I have no doubt sits on some fence-post or rail there), and it instantly translates me from the sphere of my work and repairs all the world that we jointly inhabit. It reminds me of so many country afternoons and evenings when this bird's strain was heard far over the fields, as I pursued it from field to field. . . .What he suggests is permanently true. As the bay-wing sang many a thousand years ago, so sang he to-night. May 12, 1857
As the bay-wing sang
many thousand years ago
so sang he to-night.
May 12. Chimney swallows. May 12, 1858
May 13. Methinks I hear and see the tanager now. . . . At Corner Spring, stood listening to a catbird, sounding a good way off. Was surprised to detect the singer within a rod and a half on a low twig, the ventriloquist. Should not have believed it was he, if I had not seen the movements of his throat, corresponding to each note, -looking at this near singer whose notes sounded so far away. May 13, 1853
May 13. Hear the first catbird, more clear and tinkling than the thrasher. . . .Now, about two hours before sunset, the brown thrashers are particularly musical. One seems to be contending in song with another. The chewink’s strain sounds quite humble in comparison. May 13, 1855
May 13. The air is filled with the song of birds, — warbling vireo, gold robin, yellowbirds, and occasionally the bobolink. The gold robin, just come, is heard in all parts of the village.
I see both male and female. It is a remarkable difference between this day and yesterday, that yesterday this and the bobolink were not heard and now the former, at least, is so musical and omnipresent. . . . I doubt if we shall at any season hear more birds singing than now. May 13, 1855
May 14. First kingbird. Its voice and flight relate it to the swallow.
May 14, 1852
May 14. Ah! willow, willow! These willows have yellow bark, bear yellow flowers and yellowish-green leaves, and are now haunted by the summer yellowbird and Maryland yellow-throat.
The sounds and sights — as birds and flowers — heard and seen at those seasons when there are fewest are most memorable and suggestive of poetic associations. May 14, 1852
May 14.
Saw a whip-poor-will sitting in the path in woods on the mill road, — the brown mottled bird. It flutters off blindly, with slow, soft flight.
May 14, 1852
May 14. The robin sings this louring day. They sang most in and about that great freshet storm. The song of the robin is most suggestive in cloudy weather. . . . Most birds are silent in the storm. Hear the robin, oven-bird, night warbler, and, at length, the towhee's towee, chickadee's phoebe, and a preluding thrasher and a jay. May 14, 1852
May 14. Air full of golden robins. Their loud clear note betrays them as soon as they arrive.
May 14, 1856
May 14. Hear and see the red-eye on an oak. The tail is slightly forked and apparently three quarters of an inch beyond wings; all whitish beneath. May 14, 1858
May 14. Hear and see a redstart. Methinks I did also on the 10th ? The rhythm a little way off tsah, tche tche tche'-ar.
May 14, 1858
May 14.
C. says he heard a yellow-legs yesterday. May 14, 1859
May 14.
C. sees the chestnut-sided warbler and the tanager to-day, and heard a whip-poor-will last night. May 14, 1860
May 15. Hear a hummingbird in the garden. May 15, 1855
May 15. See and hear for a moment a small warbler-like bird in Nemopanthes Swamp which sings somewhat like tchut a-worieter-worieter-worieter-woo. May 15, 1855
May 15. As I sat by the Riordan crossing, thought it was the tanager I heard? May 15, 1856
May 15. Now, when the warblers begin to come in numbers with the leafing of the trees, the woods are so open that you can easily see them. May 15, 1859
May 15. Deciduous woods now swarm with migrating warblers, especially about swamps. May 15, 1860
May 16 See and hear a redstart, the rhythm of whose strain is tse'-tse, tse'-tse, tse', emphasizing the last syllable of all and not ending with the common tsear.
May 16, 1858
May 15. Hear a hummingbird in the garden. May 15, 1855
May 15. See and hear for a moment a small warbler-like bird in Nemopanthes Swamp which sings somewhat like tchut a-worieter-worieter-worieter-woo. May 15, 1855
May 15. As I sat by the Riordan crossing, thought it was the tanager I heard? May 15, 1856
May 15. Now, when the warblers begin to come in numbers with the leafing of the trees, the woods are so open that you can easily see them. May 15, 1859
May 15. Deciduous woods now swarm with migrating warblers, especially about swamps. May 15, 1860
May 16 I hear a hummingbird about the columbines.
May 16, 1852
May 16
The earth is all fragrant as one flower. And bobolinks tinkle in the air. Nature now is perfectly genial to man.
May 16, 1854
May 16
A green bittern with its dark-green coat and crest, sitting watchful, goes off with a limping peetweet flight. May 16, 1855
May 16
The whip-poor-will heard. May 16, 1858
May 16 A hummingbird yesterday came into the next house and was caught.
Flew about our parlor to-day and tasted Sophia's flowers. In some lights you saw none of the colors of its throat. In others, in the shade the throat was a clear bright scarlet, but in the sun it glowed with splendid metallic, fiery reflections about the neck and throat.
May 16, 1858
May 16.
Hear a tanager to-day, and one was seen yesterday.
May 16, 1859
May 16.
At eve the first spark of a nighthawk. May 16, 1859
May 16. Near Peter's I see a small creeper hopping along the branches of the oaks and pines, ever turning this way and that as it hops, making various angles with the bough; then flies across to another bough, or to the base of another tree, and traces that up, zigzag and prying into the crevices. May 16, 1860
May 17. The wood thrush has sung for some time. He touches a depth in me which no other bird's song does.. . ., — a Shakespeare among birds, and a Homer too. May 17, 1853
May 17.
I hear the wood pewee, — pe-a-wai. The heat of yesterday has brought him on. May 17, 1853
May 17.
I hear the first unquestionable nighthawk squeak and see him circling far off high above the earth. It is now about 5 o'clock p. m.
May 17, 1853
May 17.
The sweetest singers among the birds are heard more distinctly now, as the reflections are seen more distinctly in the water, — the veery constantly now.
May 17, 1853
May 17.
I hear the wood pewee, — pe-a-wai. The heat of yesterday has brought him on.
May 17, 1853
May 17. Hear the wood pewee, the warm weather sound. May 17, 1854
May 18. First veery strain. May 18, 1855
May 18. 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? May 18, 1855
May 19. The tanager is now heard plainly and frequently. May 19, 1856
May 19. The tanager is now heard plainly and frequently. May 19, 1856
May 21. What strong colored fellows, black, white, and fiery rose-red breasts! Strong-natured, too, with their stout bills. A clear, sweet singer, like a tanager but hoarse somewhat, and not shy.
May 21, 1856
May 22. I hear also pe-a-wee pe-a-wee, and then occasionally pee-yu, the first syllable in a different and higher key emphasized, — all very sweet and naive and innocent. May 22, 1854
May 22. I hear also pe-a-wee pe-a-wee, and then occasionally pee-yu, the first syllable in a different and higher key emphasized, — all very sweet and naive and innocent. May 22, 1854
May 24. 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; . . . Song not so sweet as clear and strong.
May 24, 1855
May 25.
Hear and see . . . the rose-breasted grosbeak, a handsome bird with a loud and very rich song, in character between that of a robin and a red-eye. . . . Rose breast, white beneath, black head and above, white on shoulder and wings.
May 25, 1854
Loud very rich song,
black head, rose breast white beneath:
Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
May 27. The red-eye is an indefatigable singer, — a succession of short bars with hardly an interval long continued, now at 3 p. m. May 27, 1854
 |
Tell-tale, Godwit,
Greater yellowlegs
|
May 31. See a greater telltale, and this is the only one I have seen probably; distinguished by its size. . . . It keeps nodding its head with an awkward jerk, and wades in the water to the middle of its yellow legs; goes off with a loud and sharp phe phe phe phe. May 31, 1854
Last night the eastern wood pewee was not heard,
but tonight it was peeweeing in the creeping darkness of the evening.
Spring is coming to an end and the thickness of summer will soon take its place.
[Avesong May 24, 2009.]
See May 14, 1852 (listing in order from May 1 to 12: "Robin 1 Catbird 1 Black and white creeper 1 Purple finch 1 Myrtle-bird 2 Chipping sparrow 2 Indigo-bird (?) 2 Brown thrasher 3 Whip-poor-will 3 Warbling vireo (i Green bittern 6 Oven-bird 7 Bank swallow 7 Small pewee 7 Summer yellowbird 7 Peetweet 7 Chimney swallow 8 Maryland yellow-throat 8 Golden robin 8 Martins 8 probably long before. Snipe (?) 8 Night-warbler 8 Yorrick (?) 8 Pigeon or turtle dove 9 Female yellowbird 10 Bobolink 12 Quail 12")
See May 14, 1852 (listing in order from May 1 to 12: "Robin 1 Catbird 1 Black and white creeper 1 Purple finch 1 Myrtle-bird 2 Chipping sparrow 2 Indigo-bird (?) 2 Brown thrasher 3 Whip-poor-will 3 Warbling vireo (i Green bittern 6 Oven-bird 7 Bank swallow 7 Small pewee 7 Summer yellowbird 7 Peetweet 7 Chimney swallow 8 Maryland yellow-throat 8 Golden robin 8 Martins 8 probably long before. Snipe (?) 8 Night-warbler 8 Yorrick (?) 8 Pigeon or turtle dove 9 Female yellowbird 10 Bobolink 12 Quail 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 © 2009-2019
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