The season is waning.

September 10. 

See wasps, collected in the sun on a wall, at 9 A. M.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 10, 1859

Wasps collected in the sun on a wall. See August 21, 1852 ("See The bees, wasps, etc. are on the goldenrods, improving their time before the sun of the year sets"); August 29, 1851 ("I find a wasp in my window, which already appears to be taking refuge from winter"); September 26, 1857 ("The season is waning. A wasp just looked in upon me."); October 2, 1851 ("At the Cliffs, I find the wasps prolonging their short lives on the sunny rocks, just as they endeavored to do at my house in the woods."); October 12, 1856 ("Wasps for some time looking about for winter quarters.")