C. says he heard a yellow-legs yesterday.

May 14. 

Saturday. 

Surveying for Damon. 

Rhodora out, says C. 

Yorrick heard the 12th. 

Did I hear a bobolink this morning? 

C. says he heard a yellow-legs yesterday. 

Bought a black sucker (?), just speared at the factory dam, fifteen inches long, blacker than I am used to, I think; at any rate a very good fish to eat, as I proved, while the other common sucker there is said not to be. This had very conspicuous corrugations on the lips. I suspect that their other one is the horned chub. They have speared the former a long time there, and it is getting late for them. 

Vernal grass quite common at Willis Spring now.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 14, 1859

Surveying for Damon. See May 6, 1859 ("Surveying for Willis & Damon at the factory [and] behind Willis's house on the shore of the mill-pond")

Rhodora out, says C. See  May 18, 1855 ("Rhodora; probably some yesterday."); May 18, 1856 ("The rhodora there [Kalmia Swamp] maybe to-morrow. Elsewhere I find it (on Hubbard’s meadow) to-day. "); May 18, 1857 ("Pratt says he saw the first rhodora . . . out yesterday"); May 17, 1858 ("Rhodora at Clamshell well out.")

Yorrick heard the 12th. See May 10, 1858 (" Hear in various woods the yorrick note of the veery.")
C. says he heard a yellow-legs yesterday. See May 18, 1855 ("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? "). Compare May 31, 1854 ( "See a greater telltale, and this is the only one I have seen probably. . .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. ...")

Vernal grass quite common at Willis Spring now. See May 14, 1858 ("Look at White Avens Shore. See what I call vernal grass in bloom in many places. “)

So we get a late start on our walk which starts out as a short walk to the lower view but we press on this time down the rope trail and around on the logging road to the fort. I wear my rubber boots because it has been raining a lot lately so I can wade the stream here in the dark.The moon is past its first quarter and we haven’t seen it in days. But behind the clouds it is providing light and I notice shadows on the forest floor. Actually I notice  the shadows on the forest floor then turn around and see the moon through the clouds. The sky also is providing light enough to see the new leaflets silhouetted against it. It is spring and I’m happy to have spent more time on a daily basis here in the woods. I’m not thinking my blood pressure  on the trail. The moonlight and shadows of the new leaves already  in the canopy are pushing me to compose a haiku as we walk out.To avoid the wetness we go up to the base of the lower vies and then by the Lonepine Cliff Trail. I get hallucinations walking in the dark that I am in a bed of small leafy plants. The forest floor looks mottled dark and light but it is just after-images in my retina. In any event we  make it back without a headlamp and it is 10 PM.

Even behind clouds

tonight's moon casts shadows

on the forest floor.

Turning ‘round I see

a mist of leaflets

silhouetted against the sky.

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