A kingfisher's nest, six or seven feet deep in the bank.

June 6.

June 6, 2019

P. M. — To Well Meadow. 

Yellow wood-sorrel out. Umbelled thesium, how long? 

Red avens, how long? 

Stellaria longifolia, at Well Meadow Head, how long? 

Cardamine rhomboidea has green seed.

Hear of a kingfisher's nest, just found in a sand bank behind Abner Buttrick's, with six fresh eggs, of which I have one. The boy said it was six or seven feet deep in the bank.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 6, 1859

Stellaria longifolia, at Well Meadow Head, how long? See June 6, 1854 ("The Stellaria longifolia has been out, apparently, a day or two."); See also June 8, 1856 ("Stellaria longrfolia opposite Barbarea Shore not yet out")

Hear of a kingfisher's nest, just found in a sand bank. See June 16, 1859  ("Examined a kingfisher's nest, — though there is a slight doubt if I found the spot. . . .Could feel nothing in it, but it may have been removed. Have an egg from this.”). See also  April 10, 1859 ("See a kingfisher flying very low, in the ricochet manner, across the water. "); April 11, 1856 ("Saw a kingfisher on a tree over the water. Does not its arrival mark some new movement in its finny prey? He is the bright buoy that betrays it!"); April 15, 1855 ("See and hear a kingfisher—do they not come with the smooth waters of April? — hurrying over the meadow as if on urgent business.”); April 17, 1858 ("See several kingfishers"); April 22, 1855 ("The bluish band on the breast of the kingfisher leaves the pure white beneath in the form of a heart"); April 23, 1854 (“A kingfisher with his crack, — cr-r-r-rack.”); April 24, 1854 ("The kingfisher flies with a crack cr-r-r-ack and a limping or flitting flight from tree to tree before us ”); May 10, 1854 ("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.”); June 9, 1854 ("The air is now full of shad-flies, and there is an incessant sound made by the fishes leaping for their evening meal, . . .Meanwhile the kingfishers are on the lookout for the fishes as they rise. I see one dive in the twilight and go off uttering his cr-r-ack, cr-r-rack. "); June 12, 1854 ("Scare a kingfisher on a bough over Walden. As he flies off, he hovers two or three times thirty or forty feet above the pond, and at last dives and apparently catches a fish, with which he flies off low over the water to a tree."); June 25, 1854 ("I observe many kingfishers at Walden and on the Assabet, very few on the dark and muddy South Branch.”); July 28, 1858 ("Heard a kingfisher, which had been hovering over the river, plunge forty rods off. "); August 6, 1858 ("The kingfisher is seen hovering steadily over one spot, or hurrying away with a small fish in his mouth, sounding his alarum nevertheless. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau. The Kingfisher

I hear of the first early blueberries.

July 16. 

Thursday. P. M. — To Hemlocks. 

Geum album, apparently well out. 

As I walk through the pasture side of the hill, see a mouse or two glance before me in faint galleries in the grass. They are seldom seen, for these small deer, like the larger, disappear suddenly, as if they had exploded before your eyes. 

Lechea thymifolia of Gray is the large-podded one according to plate in his "Genera.” 

G., in same, shows five petals to Portulaca and says it "has from early times been naturalized around gardens almost every where ... is said to be truly wild in Arkansas and Texas.” *

I hear of the first early blueberries brought to market. What a variety of rich blues their berries present, i. e. the earliest kind! Some are quite black and without bloom. What innocent flavors!

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 16, 1857

Geum album, apparently well out.  See July 6, 1856 (“White avens, evidently Bigelow’s Geum album (which Gray makes only a variety of G. Virginianum), a good while, very rough and so much earlier than the G. Virginianum that only one flower remains. The heads have attained their full size, with twisted tails to the awns, while the other will not open for some days. I think Bigelow must be right.”) See also July 16, 1856 (“Geum Virginianum, apparently two or three days.”); June 28, 1857 (“Geum Virginianum some time, apparently, past its prime . . .say, then, the 18th. ”);

G[ray] shows five petals to Portulaca . . . See August 14, 1856 ("On roadside heap at Emerson's, a portulaca with leaves one inch wide and seven petals (!) instead of five.”)

• *"Asa Gray, The Genera of the Plants of the United States , Portulaca -  Purslane : "Etymology, Geographical Distribution, &c. The old Latin name, of uncertain meaning, for the Common Purslane, which has been used from all antiquity as a potherh, and in salads. All are natives of the tropics and of the southern border of the northern temperate zone ; but the common Purslane has from early times been naturalized around gardens almost every where. Several showy species have recently become common in cultiva tion. P. pilosa is indigenous on our Southern frontiers ; and P. oleracea itself is said to be truly wild in Arkansas and Texas.”

What a variety of rich blues their berries present, See July 11, 1857 (“Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum ripe. Their dark blue with a bloom is a color that surprises me. ”); July 13, 1852 ("There are evidently several kinds of . . . blueberries not described by botanists: of the very early blueberries at least two varieties, one glossy black with dark-green leaves, the other a rich light blue with bloom and yellowish-green leaves"); July 13, 1854 (“The V. Pennsylvanicum is soft and rather thin and tasteless, mountain and spring like, with its fine light-blue bloom, very handsome, simple and ambrosial.”) August 4, 1856 (“still fresh, the great very light blue (i. e. with a very thick blue bloom) Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum in heavy clusters, that early ambrosial fruit, delicate-flavored, thin-skinned, and cool, — Olympian fruit”) See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Blueberry

A copious rain, raising the river a little

July 16

Sium out not long. 

I see many young shiners (?) (they have the longitudinal bar), one to two and a half inches long, and young breams two or three inches long and quite broad.

Geum Virginianum, apparently two or three days.

July 16.

See several bullfrogs lying fully out on pads at 5 p. m. They trump well these nights. 

It is remarkable how a copious rain, raising the river a little, flattens down the heart-leaf and other weeds at bathing-places.

H. D.  Thoreau, Journal, July 16, 1856

Shiners (they have the longitudinal bar), See March 29, 1854 ("poised over the sand on invisible fins, the outlines of a shiner". . . "distinct longitudinal light-colored line midway along their sides and a darker line below it”); July 17, 1856 ("They have brighter golden irides, all the abdomen conspicuously pale-golden, the back and half down the sides pale-brown, a broad, distinct black band along sides (which methinks marks the shiner), and comparatively transparent beneath behind vent."); December 18, 1858 (“They are little shiners with the dark longitudinal stripe”)

Bullfrogs. See July 17, 1856 ("Returning after ten, by moonlight, see the bullfrogs lying at full length on the pads where they trump."); July 17, 1860 ("Clean and handsome bullfrogs . . . sit imperturbable out on the stones all around the pond.”)

July 16. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau July 16

Several bullfrogs 

lying fully out on pads.

They trump well these nights.

The anxious peet of a peetweet, hovering over its young.

July 6

P. M. — To Assabet Bath. 

Campanula aparinoides, roadside opposite centaurea, several days. Early low blueberries ripe. 

Cross the river at bath place. On the sandy bank opposite, see a wood tortoise voraciously eating sorrel leaves, under my face. 

In A. Hosmer’s ice-bared meadow south of Turnpike, hear the distressed or anxious peet of a peetweet, and see it hovering over its young, half grown, which runs beneath and suddenly hides securely in the grass when but few feet from me. 

White avens, evidently Bigelow’s Geum album (which Gray makes only a variety of G. Virginianum), a good while, very rough and so much earlier than the G. Virginianum that only one flower remains. The heads have attained their full size, with twisted tails to the awns, while the other will not open for some days. I think Bigelow must be right. 

Lysimachia lanceolata, a day or two. 

Rhus typhina in our yard; how long? Did not see it out in New Bedford ten days ago. 

There is a young red mulberry in the lower hedge beneath the celtis. 

G. Emerson says the sweet-briar was doubtless introduced, yet, according to Bancroft, Gosnold found it on the Elizabeth Isles.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 6, 1856

On the sandy bank opposite, see a wood tortoise voraciously eating sorrel leaves, under my face. See June 28, 1860 ("Meet to-day with a wood tortoise . . . in Hosmer's sandy bank field north of Assabet Bridge, deliberately eating sorrel.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Wood Sorrel; A Book of the Seasons, the Wood Turtle (Emys insculpta)

The distressed or anxious peet of a peetwee  . . ,  hovering over its young. See July 2, 1860 ("the alarm note of the peetweets, concerned about their young."); June 21, 1855 ("Peetweets make quite a noise calling to their young with alarm.")

Half-grown young peetweets

suddenly hide in the grass

but few feet from me.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,  The anxious peet of a peetweet

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 ©  2009-2026

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