Great numbers of pollywogs have apparently just changed into frogs.

July 20.

2 P. M. – To Walden.

Warm weather, — 86 at 2 P. M. (not so warm for a good while).

Emerson’s lot that was burnt, between the railroad and the pond, has been cut off within the last three months, and I notice that the oak sprouts have commonly met with a check after growing one or two feet, and small reddish leafets have again put forth at the extremity within a week or so, as in the spring.

Some of the oak sprouts are five to six feet high already. On his hill near by, where the wood was cut about two years ago, this second growth of the oaks, especially white oaks, is much more obvious, and commenced longer ago.

The shoots of this year are generally about two feet long, but the first foot consists of large dark green leaves which expanded early, before the shoot met with a check.

This is surmounted by another foot of smaller yellowish-green leaves. This is very generally the case, and produces a marked contrast. Dark green bushes surmounted by a light or yellowish-green growth.

Sometimes, in the first-mentioned sprout-land, you see where the first shoot withered, as if frost-bitten at the end, and often only some large buds have formed there as yet.

Many of these sprouts, the rankest of them, are fated to fall, being but slightly joined to the stump, riddled by ants there; and others are already prostrated.

Bathing on the side of the deep cove, I noticed just below the high-water line (of rubbish) quite a number of little pines which have just sprung up amid the stones and sand and wreck, some with the seed atop.

This, then, is the state of their coming up naturally. They have evidently been either washed up, or have blown across the ice or snow to this shore. If pitch pine, they were probably blown across the pond, for I have often seen them on their way across.

Both Scirpus subterminalis and debilis are now in bloom at the Pout’s Nest, the former the longest time, the water being very low and separated from the pond. The former out for some time, the latter not long.

Great numbers of pollywogs have apparently just changed into frogs.

At the pondlet on Hubbard’s land, now separated from the main pond by a stony bar, hundreds of small frogs are out on the shore, enjoying their new state of existence, masses of them, which, with constant plashing, go hopping into the water a rod or more before me, where they are very swift to conceal themselves in the mud at the bottom. Their bodies may be one and a half inches long or more.

I have rarely seen so many frogs together. Yet I hardly see one pollywog left in this pool.

Yet at the shore against Pout’s Nest I see many pollywogs, and some, with hind legs well grown beside tails tails, lie up close to the shore on the sand with their heads out like frogs, apparently already breathing air before losing their tails. They squat and cower there as I come by, just like frogs.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 20, 1860

Both Scirpus subterminalis [water bulrush]and debilis [weakstalk bulrush]are now in bloom at the Pout’s Nest. See July 19, 1859 ("Scirpus subterminalis, river off Hoar's and Cheney's, not long."); August 31,,1858 ("At the Pout’s Nest, Walden, I find the Scirpus debilis, apparently in prime, generally aslant");  September 15, 1858 ("I find, just rising above the target-weed at Pout’s Nest, Scirpus subterminalis, apparently recently out of bloom. The culms two to three feet along, appearing to rise half an inch above the spikes. The long, linear immersed leaves coming off and left below. ")

 "Pout’s Nest": HDT's name for Wyman's Meadow near Walden. See June 7, 1858 and note to July 26, 1860 (I see a bream swimming about in that smaller pool by Walden in Hubbard's Wood. . . So they may be well off in the Wyman meadow or Pout's Nest.") The pout referred to is the Brown Bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus), also known as Horned Pout, Mud Pout or Mud Cat. See Place Names of Henry David Thoreau in Concord,

The warblers begin to come in numbers with the leafing of the trees.

May 15 

Sunday. 

Observe Cornus florida involucres.

Sarsaparilla flower. 

Salix discolor seed, or down, begins to blow. 

A woodcock starts up with whistling sound. 

I have been struck of late with the prominence of the Viburnum nudum leaf in the swamps, reddish-brown and one inch over, a peculiarly large and mature-looking, firm-looking leaf. 

Swamp white oak leafed several days, but generally appears as in winter at a little distance. 

Salix lucida well out, how long? 

Nemopanthes flower, apparently a day or two. 

Now, when the warblers begin to come in numbers with the leafing of the trees, the woods are so open that you can easily see them. They are scarce and silent in a cool and windy day, or found only in sheltered places. 

I see an oak shoot (or sprout) already grown ten inches, when the buds of oaks and of most trees are but just burst generally. You are surprised to see such a sudden and rapid development when you had but just begun to think of renewed life, not yet of growth. Very properly these are called shoots. 

This plant has, perhaps, in four or five days accomplished one fourth part [of] its whole summer's growth. (So on the 4th of June I notice the shoots of the white pine, five to nine inches long, arranged raywise about the terminal one and the end of their branches, having in about a fortnight accomplished one quarter to one third their whole summer growth. Thus they may be properly said to shoot when their season comes, and then stand to harden and mature before the winter.)

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 15, 1859

Now, when the warblers begin to come in numbers with the leafing of the trees, the woods are so open that you can easily see them. See May 15, 1860 ("Deciduous woods now swarm with migrating warblers, especially about swamps.”) See also April 19, 1854 ("Within a few days the warblers have begun to come. They are of every hue. Nature made them to show her colors with. There are as many as there are colors and shades."); May 7, 1852 ("For now, before the leaves, they begin to people the trees in this warm weather. The first wave of summer from the south.”); May 11, 1853 (" How many little birds of the warbler family are busy now about the opening buds . . .  They are almost as much a part of the tree as its blossoms and leaves. They come and give it voice."); May 18, 1856 ("The swamp is all alive with warblers about the hoary expanding buds of oaks, maples, etc., and amid the pine and spruce."); May 18, 1857 ("The swamp is all alive with warblers . . . They fill the air with their little tshree tshree sprayey notes")May 23, 1857 ("This is the time and place to hear the new-arriving warblers, the first fine days after the May storm. When the leaves generally are just fairly expanding,"); May 28, 1855 ("I have seen within three or four days two or three new warblers “) 

I see an oak shoot (or sprout) already grown ten inches. See May 26, 1854 ("Some young red oaks have already grown eighteen inches, i. e. within a fortnight, before their leaves have two-thirds expanded. They have accomplished more than half their year's growth, as if,. . . now burst forth like a stream which has been dammed. They are properly called shoots.”); May 25, 1853 ("Many do most of their growing for the year in a week or two at this season. They shoot - they spring - and the rest of the Year they harden and mature,. . .”); June 30, 1854 ("Young oak shoots have grown from one and a half to three or four feet, but now in some cases appear to be checked and formed a large bud.”)

So on the 4th of June I notice the shoots of the white pine, five to nine inches long. See May 19, 1854 ("The white pine shoots are now two or three inches long generally, — upright light marks on the body of dark green.”); May 28, 1855 (“White pine and pitch pine shoots from two to five inches long.”);July 4, 1860 ("The white pine shoot which on the 19th of June had grown sixteen and a quarter inches and on the 27th twenty and three quarters is now twenty-three and an eighth inches long.”)

The warblers begin

to come in numbers with the

leafing of the trees.

August rain and mist contract our horizon

August 4.

P.M. — Via Turnpike to Smith's Hill. 

August 4, 2023

A still, cloudy day with from time to time a gentle August rain. Rain and mist contract our horizon and we notice near and small objects.

Purple gerardia, by brook. 

The autumnal dandelion is now more common. 

Ranunculus aquatilis var. fluviatilis, white petals with a yellow claw, small flowers on surface of Hosmer's ditch, west end, by Turnpike. A new plant.

The swamp blackberry on high land, ripe a day or two. 

I hear the pigeon woodpecker still, — wickoff, wickoff, wickoff, wickoff, from a neighboring oak. 

See a late rose still in flower. 

On this hill (Smith's) the bushes are black with huckleberries. They droop over the rocks with the weight and are very handsome. Now in their prime. Some glossy black, some dull black, some blue; and patches of Vaccinium vacillans intermixed.

It is already fall in low swampy woods where the cinnamon fern prevails. There are the sight and scent of beginning decay. 

I see a new growth on oak sprouts, three to six inches, with reddish leaves as in spring. Some whole trees show the lighter new growth at a distance, above the dark green. 

Cannabis sativa.

After sunset, a very low, thick, and flat white fog like a napkin, on the meadows, which ushers in a foggy night.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal,  August 4, 1854

A gentle August rain. Rain and mist contract our horizon. See August 4, 1852 ("A pleasant time to behold a small lake in the woods is in the intervals of a gentle rain-storm at this season , . . as the atmosphere is so shallow and contracted, being low-roofed with clouds, the lake as a lower heaven is much larger in proportion to it.”)

Purple gerardia, by brook. See August 20, 1852 ("The purple gerardia is very beautiful now in green grass.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Purple Gerardia (Gerardia purpurea)

The autumnal dandelion is now more common. See July 27, 1853 ("The autumnal dandelion now appears more abundantly within a week"); August 24, 1852 ("Autumnal dandelions are more common now. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Autumnal Dandelion

The swamp blackberry on high land, ripe a day or two.  See August 6, 1856 (“Rubus hispidus ripe.”); August 15, 1852 ("The swamp blackberry begins.”); August 23, 1856 (“ At the Lincoln bound hollow, Walden, there is a dense bed of the Rubus hispidus, matting the ground seven or eight inches deep, and full of the small black fruit, now in its prime. It is especially abundant where the vines lie over a stump. Has a peculiar, hardly agreeable acid.”)

I hear the pigeon woodpecker still, — wickoff, wickoff, wickoff, wickoff.  See  August 14, 1858 ("The flicker‘s cackle, once of late."); October 5, 1857 ("The pigeon woodpecker utters his whimsical ah-week ah-week, etc., as in spring.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Pigeon Woodpecker (flicker)

See a late rose still in flower. See July 23, 1860 ("The late rose is now in prime along the river, a pale rose-color but very delicate, keeping up the memory of roses.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Wild Rose

The bushes are black with huckleberries . . . in their prime. Some glossy black, some dull black, some blue; and patches of Vaccinium vacillans intermixed. See August 4, 1852 “Most huckleberries and blueberries and low blackberries are in their prime now.”); August 4. 1856 (" large blue and also shining black huckleberries (Gaylussacia resinosa) of various flavors and qualities; and over all runs rampant the low blackberry (Rubus Canadensis), weighing down the thicket with its wreaths of black fruit. . . .This favorable moist weather has expanded some of the huckleberries to the size of bullets.") See also The Whortleberry Family

It is already fall in low swampy woods where the cinnamon fern prevails. See September 6, 1854 ("The cinnamon ferns along the edge of woods next the meadow are many yellow or cinnamon, or quite brown and withered.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Cinnamon Fern

I see a new growth on oak sprouts. See July 14, 1852 ("Trees have commonly two growths in the year, a spring and a fall growth . . .These two growths are now visible on the oak sprouts, the second already nearly equalling the first.")

Cannabis sativa. See August 11, 1852 ("Cannabis sativa, apparently out.")

Low, thick, and flat white fog like a napkin, on the meadows, which ushers in a foggy night. See August 7, 1860 (" I am struck by the localness of the fogs. . . If we awake into a fog it does not occur to us that the inhabitants of a neighboring town may have none.")

August 4. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,  August 4 

August rain and mist

contract our horizon

to the near and small.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, August rain and mist

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 © 2009-2025

tinyurl.com/HDT-540805

Decidedly midsummer rain.

July 25.

A decided rain-storm to-day and yesterday, such as we have not had certainly since May. Are we likely ever to have two days' rain in June and the first half of July?

There is considerable wind too.

P. M. — To Bare Hill, Lincoln, via railroad. 

High blackberries, a day or two.  

I see some oak sprouts from the stump, six feet high. Some are now just started again after a pause, with small red leaves as in the spring. 

The rain has saved the berries. They are plump and large.

Hear a wood thrush. 

I now start some packs of partridges, old and young, going off together without mewing. 

See in woods a toad, dead-leaf color with black spots.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 25, 1854

A decided rain-storm to-day and yesterday.  See July 24, 1854 ("The last four or five days it has been very hot and [we] have been threatened with thunder-showers every afternoon . . . though we had not much.")

Oak sprouts... started again. See July 14, 1852 ("Trees have commonly two growths in the year, a spring and a fall growth, ... and you can ... wonder what there was in the summer to produce this check...These two growths are now visible on the oak sprouts, the second already nearly equalling the first."); August 4, 1854 (" I see a new growth on oak sprouts, three to six inches, with reddish leaves as in spring. Some whole trees show the lighter new growth at a distance, above the dark green.")

High blackberries, a day or two. See August 3, 1856 ("High blackberries beginning; a few ripe."); August 4, 1856 ("Here and there the high blackberry, just beginning, towers over all. "):
See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Blackberries

 

Hear a wood thrush. See July 19, 1854 ("A wood thrush to-night."); July 31, 1854 ("Wood thrush still sings."); August 12, 1854 ("Have not heard a wood thrush since last week of July."); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Wood Thrush

I now start some packs of partridges, old and young.  See July 28, 1854 (Partridges begin to go off in packs.) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Partridge

A toad, dead-leaf color with black spots. See July 25, 1855 ("Many little toads about.") See also June 29, 1852 ("The mud turtle is the color of the mud, the wood frog and the hylodes of the dead leaves, the bullfrogs of the pads, the toad of the earth, the tree-toad of the bark."); July 12, 1852 ("I go to walk at twilight, — at the same time that toads go to their walks, and are seen hopping about the sidewalks or the pump"); July 17, 1853 ("Young toads not half an inch long at Walden shore."); July 17, 1856 (“I see many young toads hopping about on that bared ground amid the thin weeds, not more than five eighths to three quarters of an inch long.”); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Midsummer Toads

July 25. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, July 25

A rain-storm to-day –

rain such as we certainly 

have not had since May.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,  Decidedly midsummer rain.

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/hdt-5407725

Early raspberries; young oaks

June 30.

June 30, 2014

Jersey tea. 

Young oak shoots have grown from one and a half to three or four feet, but now in some cases appear to be checked and a large bud to have formed. 

Poke, a day or two. 

Small crypta Elatine, apparently some days at least, at Callitriche Pool. 

Rubus triflorus berries, some time, — the earliest fruit of a rubus.The berries are very scarce, light red, semitransparent, showing the seed, — a few (six to ten) large shining grains and rather acid. 

Lobelia spicata, to-morrow.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 30, 1854

Jersey tea. See June 29, 1853 ("Jersey tea, just beginning.")

Young oak shoots have grown from one and a half to three or four feet, but now in some cases appear to be checked and formed a large bud. See May 26, 1854 ("Some young red oaks have already grown eighteen inches, i. e. within a fortnight, before their leaves have two-thirds expanded. They have accomplished more than half their year's growth, as if,. . .  now burst forth like a stream which has been dammed. They are properly called shoots.”); May 25, 1853 ("Many do most of their growing for the year in a week or two at this season. They shoot - they spring - and the rest of the Year they harden and mature,. . .")

Rubus triflorus berries, some time, — the earliest fruit of a rubus. See May 21, 1856 ("Rubus triflorus abundantly out at the Saw Mill Brook”); June 7, 1857 ("Rubus triflorus still in bloom");   June 25, 1854 ("A raspberry on sand by railroad, ripe."); July 6, 1857 (“Rubus triflorus well ripe.”); July 2, 1851("Some of the raspberries are ripe, the most innocent and simple of fruits”); July 11, 1857 ("I see more berries than usual of the Rubus triflorus in the open meadow near the southeast corner of the Hubbard meadow blueberry swamp.. . .They are dark shining red and, when ripe, of a very agreeable flavor and somewhat of the raspberry's spirit.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Raspberry

Lobelia spicata, to-morrow. See July 19, 1856 ("On the under side of a Lobelia spicata leaf, a sort of loose-spun cocoon, about five eighths of an inch long, of golden-brown silk, beneath which silky mist a hundred young spiders swarm")