A Book of the Seasons, Signs of the Spring: The Water-bug (Gyrinus)

No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of the spring. 

Henry Thoreau, March 17, 1857

To-day they are here 

and yesterday they were not.

First water bugs out.

March 10, 1855

February 8. About an old boat frozen in, I see a great many little gyrinus-shaped bugs swimming about in the water above the ice. February 8, 1860

February 23.   I have seen signs of the spring.  February 23, 1857

March 3.  See two small water-bugs at the spring; none elsewhere. March 3, 1859

March 5. I saw on the ice, quite alive, some of those black water-beetles, which apparently had been left above by a rise of the river. Were they a Gyrinus? March 5, 1859

March 6.  The small gyrinus is circling in the brook. March 6, 1855

March 10. You are always surprised by the sight of the first spring bird or insect; they seem premature, and there is no such evidence of spring as themselves, so that they literally fetch the year about. It is thus when I hear the first robin or bluebird or, looking along the brooks, see the first water-bugs out circling. But you think, "They have come, and Nature cannot recede." Thus, when on the 6th I saw the gyrinus at Second Division Brook, I saw no peculiarity in the water or the air to remind me of them, but to-day they are here and yesterday they were not. March 10, 1855

March 15.  C. says he has heard a striped squirrel and seen a water-bug (Gyrinus), — it must have been on Saturday (12th). March 15, 1853

March 17.  Saw a small gyrinus at the brook bridge behind Hubbard's Grove. March 17, 1854

March 18. Within the brook I see quite a school of little minnows, an inch long, amid or over the bare dead stems of polygonums, and one or two little water-bugs (apple seeds). The last also in the broad ditch on the Corner road, in Wheeler’s meadow. Notwithstanding the backwardness of the season, all the town still under deep snow and ice, here they are, in the first open and smooth water, governed by the altitude of the sun. March 18, 1856

March 19.  In the smooth open water there [the broad ditch on the Corner road], small water-bugs were gyrating singly, not enough to play the game. March 19, 1856

March 19.  Myriads of water-bugs of various sizes are now gyrating, and they reflect the sun like silver. Why do they cast a double orbicular shadow on the bottom? March 19, 1860

March 20.  Saw a large dead water-bug on Walden. I suspect he came out alive. March 20, 1853

March 22.   At Nut Meadow Brook, water-bugs and skaters are now plenty. March 22, 1853

March 22.  The phenomena of an average March . . . Many insects and worms come forth and are active, — and the perla insects still about ice and water, — as tipula, grubs, and fuzzy caterpillars, minute hoppers on grass at springs; gnats, large and small, dance in air; the common and the green fly buzz outdoors; the gyrinus, large and small, on brooks, etc., and skaters; spiders shoot their webs, and at last gossamer floats; the honey bee visits the skunk - cabbage; fishworms come up, sow-bugs, wireworms, etc.; various larvæ are seen in pools; small green and also brown grasshoppers begin to hop, small ants to stir ( 25th ); Vanessa Antiopa out 29th; cicindelas run on sand; and small reddish butter flies are seen in wood-paths, etc., etc., etc. March 22, 1860

*****

See also Signs of the Spring:

• A Change in the Air
• A Sunny Nook in Spring
• Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding
• Braided Ripples of Melting Snow Shine in the Ruts
• Bright Blue Water
• Buzzing Flies
• Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow
• Frogs, and Turtles Stirring
• Greening Grasses and Sedges
• Insects and Worms Come Forth and are Active
• Listening for the Bluebird
• March is famous for its Winds
• Mosses Bright Green
• Perla-like Insects Appear
• Red Maple Sap Flows
• Ripples made by Fishes
• Skunks Active
• The Anxious Peep of the Early Robin
• The Crowing of Cocks, the Cawing of crows
• The Gobbling of Turkeys
• The Grackle Arrives
• The Hawks of March
• The Note of the Dark-eyed Junco Going Northward
• The Red-Wing Arrives
• The Skunk Cabbage Blooms
• The Softened Air of these Warm February Days
• The Song Sparrow Sings
• The Spring Note of the Chickadee
• The Spring Note of the Nuthatch
• The Striped Squirrel Comes Out
• The Water-bug (Gyrinus)
• Walking without Gloves
• Woodpeckers Tapping

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,

Signs of the Spring, the water-bug (Gyrinus)

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 ©  2009-2024

tinyurl.com/HDTgyrinus