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
Journal, March 14, 1852:
Again I hear the chickadee's spring note. See note to March 10, 1852 ("Hear the phoebe note of the chickadee to-day for the first time. , , , [T]hey too have become spring birds; they have changed their note. Even they feel the influence of spring.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Chickadee in Winter
Journal, March 14, 1853:
Repairing my boat. See February 24, 1857 ("Get my boat out the cellar."); February 26, 1857 ("Paint the bottom of my boat"); March 3, 1860 ("I should have launched my boat ere this if it had been ready. "); March 8, 1855 ("This morning I got my boat out of the cellar and turned it up in the yard to let the seams open before I calk it."); March 9, 1855 ("Painted the bottom of my boat."); March 15, 1854 ("Paint my boat."); March 16, 1859 ("Launch my boat and sail to Ball's Hill"); March 16, 1860 ("As soon as I can get it painted and dried, I launch my boat and make my first voyage for the year up or down the stream, on that element from which I have been debarred for three months and a half.") See also December 5, 1856 ("I love to have the river closed up for a season and a pause put to my boating, to be obliged to get my boat in. I shall launch it again in the spring with so much more pleasure. I love best to have each thing in its season only, and enjoy doing without it at all other times.") and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Boat in. Boat out.
Great concert of song sparrows by river. Hardly hear a distinct strain. See March 11, 1854 ("On Tuesday, the 7th, I heard the first song sparrow chirp, and saw it flit silently from alder to alder. This pleasant morning after three days' rain and mist, they generally forthburst into sprayey song from the low trees along the river. The developing of their song is gradual but sure, like the expanding of a flower. This is the first song I have heard."); See March 18, 1852 ("I hear the song sparrow's simple strain, most genuine herald of the spring.”) See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Song Sparrow (Fringilla melodia)
I hear the loud honking of geese throw up the window, and see a large flock in disordered harrow . . .. Raw, thick, misty weather. See March 10, 1854 ("We always have much of this rainy, drizzling, misty weather in early spring, after which we expect to hear geese."); March 24, 1859 ("How commonly they are seen in still rainy weather like this! ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of Spring, Geese Overhead
Journal, March 14, 1855:
Rice tells me that a great many young white pines in a swamp of his in Sudbury have been barked. See March 14, 1857 ("The maples, apple trees, etc., have been barked by the ice.")
Journal, March 14, 1860:
I have not observed Walden to open before before the 23d of March. [March 19, 1856, it was twenty-six inches thick! !] See March 14, 1852 ("The ice on Walden has now for some days looked white like snow"); Walden, Chapter 17 (Spring) (" It commonly opens about the first of April, a week or ten days later than Flint's Pond and Fair Haven, beginning to melt on the north side and in the shallower parts where it began to freeze."); Walden ("In 1845 Walden was first completely open on the 1st of April;
Fair Haven Pond is wholly clear, on an average, two or three days before Walden. See March 26, 1860 ("Fair Haven Pond may be open by the 20th of March, as this year, or not till April 13 as in '56, or twenty-three days later.")
No sooner has the ice of Walden melted than
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 © 2009-2021
Rice tells me that a great many young white pines in a swamp of his in Sudbury have been barked. See March 14, 1857 ("The maples, apple trees, etc., have been barked by the ice.")
Journal, March 14, 1856:
One red maple limb was moistened by sap trickling along the bark. . . Where the sap had dried on the bark, shining and sticky, it tasted quite sweet. See March 15, 1856 ("Put a spout in the red maple of yesterday, and hang a pail beneath to catch the sap.”) See also February 21, 1857 (" The earliest sap I made to flow last year was March 14th."); March 4, 1852 (I see where a maple has been wounded the sap is flowing out. Now, then, is the time to make sugar."); March 5, 1852 ("As I sit under their boughs, looking into the sky, I suddenly see the myriad black dots of the expanded buds against the sky. Their sap is flowing.”); March 7, 1855 ("To-day, as also three or four days ago, I saw a clear drop of maple sap on a broken red maple twig, which tasted very sweet.")
One red maple limb was moistened by sap trickling along the bark. . . Where the sap had dried on the bark, shining and sticky, it tasted quite sweet. See March 15, 1856 ("Put a spout in the red maple of yesterday, and hang a pail beneath to catch the sap.”) See also February 21, 1857 (" The earliest sap I made to flow last year was March 14th."); March 4, 1852 (I see where a maple has been wounded the sap is flowing out. Now, then, is the time to make sugar."); March 5, 1852 ("As I sit under their boughs, looking into the sky, I suddenly see the myriad black dots of the expanded buds against the sky. Their sap is flowing.”); March 7, 1855 ("To-day, as also three or four days ago, I saw a clear drop of maple sap on a broken red maple twig, which tasted very sweet.")
The blacksmith of Sudbury has two otter skins taken in that town. See note to January 21, 1853 ("Otter are very rare here now. I have not heard of any killed here abouts for twenty or thirty years till, within two years, two or three of them.")
Journal, March 14, 1857:
White maple buds . . .have now a minute orifice at the apex, through which you can even see the anthers. See March 17, 1855 ("White maple blossom-buds look as if bursting . . .”); March 31, 1856 ("I see the scarlet tops of white maples nearly a mile off, down the river, the lusty shoots of last year.")
White maple buds . . .have now a minute orifice at the apex, through which you can even see the anthers. See March 17, 1855 ("White maple blossom-buds look as if bursting . . .”); March 31, 1856 ("I see the scarlet tops of white maples nearly a mile off, down the river, the lusty shoots of last year.")
Journal, March 14, 1858:
This past unusual winter. See March 1, 1858 ("We have just had a winter with absolutely no sleighing, which I do not find that any one distinctly remembers the like of."); January 23, 1858 ("The wonderfully mild and pleasant weather continues. The ground has been bare since the 11th. . . .I have not been able to walk up the North Branch this winter, nor along the channel of the South Branch at any time")
A Fringilla hyemalis, the first bird which is an evidence of spring, now getting back earlier than our permanent summer residents. See March 15, 1854 ("Hear on the alders by the river the lill lill lill lill of the first F. hyemalis, mingled with song sparrows and tree sparrows."); March 18, 1857 ("I hear the chill-lill or tchit-a-tchit of the slate-colored sparrow, and see it"); March 20, 1852 ("And now, within a day or two, I have noticed the chubby slate-colored snowbird. . . and I drive the flocks before me on the railroad causeway as I walk. It has two white feathers in its tail."); March 20, 1855 ("Four or five song sparrows are flitting along amid the willows by the waterside. Probably they came yesterday with the bluebirds. At my landing I hear the F. hyemalis, in company with a few tree sparrows. They take refuge from the cold wind,. . . and there plume themselves with puffed-up feathers"); March 28, 1854 ("A flock of hyemalis drifting from a wood over a field incessantly for four or five minutes, — thousands of them, notwithstanding the cold.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Dark-eyed Junco (Fringilla hyemalis)
~According to Thoreau's observations, the dark-eyed junco arrives in Concord in early spring on its way north to breed and returns in early fall, but does not over-winter. See October 5, 1857 ( "It is evident that some phenomena which belong only to spring and autumn here, lasted through the summer in that latitude [Maine], as. . .the myrtle-bird and F. hyemalis which breed there, but only transiently visit us in spring and fall.") In June 1858 he discovers them nesting on Modadanock. June 2, 1858 (“It is the prevailing bird now up there, i.e. on the summit. They are commonly said to go to the fur countries to breed . . . The ancestors of this bird had evidently perceived on their flight northward that here was a small piece of arctic region, containing all the conditions they require. . . They discerned arctic isles sprinkled in our southern sky.”).
This past unusual winter. See March 1, 1858 ("We have just had a winter with absolutely no sleighing, which I do not find that any one distinctly remembers the like of."); January 23, 1858 ("The wonderfully mild and pleasant weather continues. The ground has been bare since the 11th. . . .I have not been able to walk up the North Branch this winter, nor along the channel of the South Branch at any time")
A Fringilla hyemalis, the first bird which is an evidence of spring, now getting back earlier than our permanent summer residents. See March 15, 1854 ("Hear on the alders by the river the lill lill lill lill of the first F. hyemalis, mingled with song sparrows and tree sparrows."); March 18, 1857 ("I hear the chill-lill or tchit-a-tchit of the slate-colored sparrow, and see it"); March 20, 1852 ("And now, within a day or two, I have noticed the chubby slate-colored snowbird. . . and I drive the flocks before me on the railroad causeway as I walk. It has two white feathers in its tail."); March 20, 1855 ("Four or five song sparrows are flitting along amid the willows by the waterside. Probably they came yesterday with the bluebirds. At my landing I hear the F. hyemalis, in company with a few tree sparrows. They take refuge from the cold wind,. . . and there plume themselves with puffed-up feathers"); March 28, 1854 ("A flock of hyemalis drifting from a wood over a field incessantly for four or five minutes, — thousands of them, notwithstanding the cold.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Dark-eyed Junco (Fringilla hyemalis)
~According to Thoreau's observations, the dark-eyed junco arrives in Concord in early spring on its way north to breed and returns in early fall, but does not over-winter. See October 5, 1857 ( "It is evident that some phenomena which belong only to spring and autumn here, lasted through the summer in that latitude [Maine], as. . .the myrtle-bird and F. hyemalis which breed there, but only transiently visit us in spring and fall.") In June 1858 he discovers them nesting on Modadanock. June 2, 1858 (“It is the prevailing bird now up there, i.e. on the summit. They are commonly said to go to the fur countries to breed . . . The ancestors of this bird had evidently perceived on their flight northward that here was a small piece of arctic region, containing all the conditions they require. . . They discerned arctic isles sprinkled in our southern sky.”).
I think I have seen many more tracks of skunks within two or three weeks than all the winter before. See February 24, 1857 (" I have seen the probings of skunks for a week or more.. . .They are very busy these nights."); February 26, 1860 ("For a day or two past I have seen in various places the small tracks apparently of skunks. They appear to come out commonly in the warmer weather in the latter part of February"); March 6, 1854 ("I see . . . what looks like the first probing of the skunk."); March 10, 1854 ("Its track is small, round, showing the nails, a little less than an inch in diameter, alternate five or six inches by two or two and a half, sometimes two feet together. . . .I have no doubt they have begun to probe already where the ground permits, — or as far as it does. But what have they eat all winter? ")
Journal, March 14, 1859:
The cowslip in pitcher has fairly blossomed to-day. See March 5, 1859 ("The cowslip there Well Meadow] is very prominently flower-budded, lifting its yellow flower-buds above water in one place. The leaves are quite inconspicuous when they first come up, being rolled up tightly."); March 24, 1855 ("It is too cold to think of those signs of spring which I find recorded under this date last year. The earliest signs of spring in vegetation noticed thus far are the maple sap, the willow catkins, grass on south banks, and perhaps cowslip in sheltered places") ; March 26, 1857 ("The buds of the cowslip are very yellow, and the plant is not observed a rod off, it lies so low and close to the surface of the water in the meadow. It may bloom and wither there several times before villagers discover or suspect it"); March 27, 1855 ("Am surprised to see the cowslip so forward, showing so much green, in E. Hubbard’s Swamp, in the brook, where it is sheltered from the winds. The already expanded leaves rise above the water. If this is a spring growth, it is the most forward herb I have seen"); April 8, 1856 ("There, in that slow, muddy brook near the head of Well Meadow, within a few rods of its source, where it winds amid the alders, which shelter the plants somewhat, while they are open enough now to admit the sun, I find two cowslips in full bloom, shedding pollen") See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau; Signs of Spring: the Cowslip
The cowslip in pitcher has fairly blossomed to-day. See March 5, 1859 ("The cowslip there Well Meadow] is very prominently flower-budded, lifting its yellow flower-buds above water in one place. The leaves are quite inconspicuous when they first come up, being rolled up tightly."); March 24, 1855 ("It is too cold to think of those signs of spring which I find recorded under this date last year. The earliest signs of spring in vegetation noticed thus far are the maple sap, the willow catkins, grass on south banks, and perhaps cowslip in sheltered places") ; March 26, 1857 ("The buds of the cowslip are very yellow, and the plant is not observed a rod off, it lies so low and close to the surface of the water in the meadow. It may bloom and wither there several times before villagers discover or suspect it"); March 27, 1855 ("Am surprised to see the cowslip so forward, showing so much green, in E. Hubbard’s Swamp, in the brook, where it is sheltered from the winds. The already expanded leaves rise above the water. If this is a spring growth, it is the most forward herb I have seen"); April 8, 1856 ("There, in that slow, muddy brook near the head of Well Meadow, within a few rods of its source, where it winds amid the alders, which shelter the plants somewhat, while they are open enough now to admit the sun, I find two cowslips in full bloom, shedding pollen") See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau; Signs of Spring: the Cowslip
Journal, March 14, 1860:
I have not observed Walden to open before before the 23d of March. [March 19, 1856, it was twenty-six inches thick! !] See March 14, 1852 ("The ice on Walden has now for some days looked white like snow"); Walden, Chapter 17 (Spring) (" It commonly opens about the first of April, a week or ten days later than Flint's Pond and Fair Haven, beginning to melt on the north side and in the shallower parts where it began to freeze."); Walden ("In 1845 Walden was first completely open on the 1st of April;
- in '46, the 25th of March;
- in '47, the 8th of April;
- in '51, the 28th of March;
- in '52, the 18th of April;
- in '53, the 23rd of March;
- in '54, about the 7th of April."
- [In Thoreau’s records, ice out occurred as early as March 15 and as late as April 18])
Fair Haven Pond is wholly clear, on an average, two or three days before Walden. See March 26, 1860 ("Fair Haven Pond may be open by the 20th of March, as this year, or not till April 13 as in '56, or twenty-three days later.")
No sooner has the ice of Walden melted than
the wind begins to
play in dark ripples over
the virgin water.
See . March 27, 1851 ("Walden is two-thirds broken up. It will probably be quite open by to-morrow night"); April 19, 1852 ("Walden is clear of ice. The ice left it yesterday, then, the 18th.; ")March 20, 1853 ("It is glorious to behold the life and joy of this ribbon of water sparkling in the sun. The wind ... raises a myriad brilliant sparkles on the bare face of the pond, an expression of glee, of youth, of spring, as if it spoke the joy of the fishes within it and of the sands on its shore. It is the contrast between life and death. There is the difference between winter and spring. The bared face of the pond sparkles with joy."); April 9, 1854 ("I am surprised to find Walden completely open. When did it open? According to all accounts, it must have been between the 6th and 9th."); March 31, 1855 ("Yesterday the earth was simple to barrenness, and dead, —bound out. Out-of-doors there was nothing but the wind and the withered grass and the cold though sparkling blue water, and you were driven in upon yourself. Now you would think that there was a sudden awakening in the very crust of the earth, as if flowers were expanding and leaves putting forth... We feel as if we had obtained a new lease of life. Looking from the Cliffs I see that Walden is open to-day first."); April 18, 1856 ("Walden is open entirely to-day for the first time, owing to the rain of yesterday and evening. I have observed its breaking up of different years commencing in ’45, and the average date has been April 4th."); March 29, 1857 ("Walden open, say to-day, though there is still a little ice in the deep southern bay and a very narrow edging along the southern shore."); March 28, 1858 ("Walden is open. When? On the 20th it was pretty solid. C. sees a very little ice in it to-day, but probably it gets entirely free to-night."); March 29, 1859 ("Driving rain and southeast wind, etc. Walden is first clear after to-day.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Ice-out. In Thoreau’s records, March 14th was the earliest ice out; April 18th was the latest with the average date April 4th. From 1995 to 2015, ice out ranged from Jan. 29 (!) to April 12 with the median ice out date March 21.
The first bird of spring
shows two white tail feathers.
Slate-colored junco.
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 © 2009-2021
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