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
One frog begins then
the whole pond joins in until
all stop together.
 |
| May 2, 2019 |
6 A. M. — Is not the chipping sparrow the commonest heard in the village streets in the mornings now, sitting on an elm or apple tree? May 2, 1852
The handsome blood-red lacquered marks on the edge and under the edge of the painted tortoise's shell . . . few colors like it in nature. This tortoise, too, like the guttata, painted on these parts of its shell and on legs and tail in this style, but throat bright yellow stripes, sternum dull yellowish or buff. May 2, 1852
I heard yesterday, and perhaps for several days, the soft purring sound of what I take to be the Rana palustris, breeding, though I did not this time see the frog. May 2, 185
Hear a tree-toad. May 2, 1858
The little frogs I kept three days in the house peeped at evening twilight, though they had been silent all day; never failed; swelled up their little bagpipes, transparent, and as big as a small cherry or a large pea. May 2, 1852
Was that a harrier seen at first skimming low then seating and circling, with a broad whiteness on the wings beneath? May 2, 1855
Aspen leaves of young trees an inch long suddenly. The leafing is apparently comparatively earlier this year than the flowering. The young aspens are the first of indigenous trees conspicuously leafed. May 2, 1855
I am surprised by the tender yellowish green of the aspen leaf just expanded suddenly, even like a fire, seen in the sun, against the dark-brown twigs of the wood, though these leafets are yet but thinly dispersed. It is very enlivening. May 2, 1859
That small native willow now in flower, or say yesterday, just before leaf. May 2, 1855
April 30, 1858 ("It is somewhat more softly purring, with frequently a low quivering, chuckling, or inquisitive croak, . . . I suspect it is the R. palustris, now breeding.")
I compare the three Rana palustris caught yesterday with the male and female of April 23d. May 2, 1858
At mouth of the Mill Brook, I hear, I should say, the true R. halecina croak, i. e. with the faint bullfrog-like er-er-er intermixed. Are they still breeding? May 2, 1858
Hear a tree-toad. May 2, 1858
The little frogs peep more or less during the day, but chiefly at evening twilight, rarely in the morning. They peep at intervals. One begins, then all join in over the whole pond, and they suddenly stop all together. May 2, 1852
The little frogs I kept three days in the house peeped at evening twilight, though they had been silent all day; never failed; swelled up their little bagpipes, transparent, and as big as a small cherry or a large pea. May 2, 1852
Their croaking is the most earthy sound now, a rustling of the scurf of the earth, not to be overlooked in the awakening of the year. It is such an earth-sound. May 2, 1852
Was that a harrier seen at first skimming low then seating and circling, with a broad whiteness on the wings beneath? May 2, 1855
If I were to be a frog hawk for a month I should soon know some things about the frogs. . . . I have seen more of them than usual since I too have been looking for frogs. May 2, 1858
Saw many crow blackbirds day before yesterday.May 2, 1859
See and hear the red-wings in flocks yet, making a great noise. May 2, 1858
I am surprised by the tender yellowish green of the aspen leaf just expanded suddenly, even like a fire, seen in the sun, against the dark-brown twigs of the wood, though these leafets are yet but thinly dispersed. It is very enlivening. May 2, 1859
That small native willow now in flower, or say yesterday, just before leaf. May 2, 1855
Salix alba apparently yesterday. May 2, 1860
I see on the Salix rostrata by railroad many honey bees laden with large and peculiarly orange-colored pellets of its pollen. May 2, 1859
Summer yellowbird on the opening Salix alba. May 2, 1853
Summer yellowbird on the opening Salix alba. May 2, 1853
Chimney swallows and the bank or else cliff ditto. May 2, 1853
Small pewee? May 2, 1853
Small pewee and young lackey caterpillars. May 2, 1859
The naked viburnum is leafing. May 2, 1860
Amelanchier Botryapium yesterday leafed. May 2, 1855
Small pewee and young lackey caterpillars. May 2, 1859
The naked viburnum is leafing. May 2, 1860
Amelanchier Botryapium yesterday leafed. May 2, 1855
Vigorous look the little spots of triangular sedge (?) springing up on the river-banks, five or six inches high, yellowish below, glaucous and hoary atop, straight and rigid. May 2, 1855
Peetweet on a rock. May 2, 1858
A peetweet and its mate at Mantatuket Rock. The river seems really inhabited when the peetweet is back. May 2, 1859
The sedge apparently Carex Pennsylvanica has now been out on low ground a day or two. May 2, 1860
Our earliest gooseberry in garden has bloomed. May 2, 1853
Missouri currant. May 2, 1853
The early potentillas are now quite abundant. May 2, 1860
Those swarms of small miller-like insects which fly low over the surface of the river. May 2, 1859
Missouri currant. May 2, 1853
The early potentillas are now quite abundant. May 2, 1860
Those swarms of small miller-like insects which fly low over the surface of the river. May 2, 1859
I am pretty sure that is the myrtle-bird I see and hear on the Corner road, picking the blossoms of the maple, with the yellow crown and black throat or cheeks. It sings pe-te-te-te-ter twe', emphasizing the last and repeating the second, third, and fourth fast. May 2, 1852
The tea lee of the yellow-rump warbler in the street, at the end of a cool, rainy day. May 2, 1856
See stake-driver. May 2, 1858
Peetweet on a rock. May 2, 1858
A peetweet and its mate at Mantatuket Rock. The river seems really inhabited when the peetweet is back. May 2, 1859
*****
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Painted Turtle (Emys picta)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Pickerel frog (Rana palustris)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Insect Hatches in Spring
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Aspens
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau. Willows on the Causeway
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Service-berry (Amelanchie)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Red-wing in Spring
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Myrtle-bird
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Summer Yellowbird
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Marsh Hawk
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The American Bittern (the Stake-Diver)
March 27, 1855 (“See my frog hawk. . . .It is the hen-barrier, i.e. marsh hawk, male. Slate-colored; beating the bush; black tips to wings and white rump. ")
March 29, 1854 (See two marsh hawks, white on rump.")
March 30, 1856 ("May have been a marsh hawk or harrier.")
April 1, 1860 ("Our gooseberry begins to show a little green, but not our currant")
April 3, 1853 ("The Missouri currant is perhaps more advanced than the early gooseberry in our garden.")
April 3, 1858 ("Their note is a hard dry tut tut tut tut, . . . and from time to time one makes that faint somewhat bullfrog-like er er er. Both these sounds, then, are made by one frog.")
April 5, 1854 ("These days . . . bring out the butterflies and the frogs, and the marsh hawks which prey on the last. Just so simple is every year.”)
April 8, 1856 ("Marsh hawks circling low shows that frogs must be out.");
April 19, 1858 ("He skims along exactly over the edge of the water, on the meadowy side, not more than three or four feet from the ground and winding with the shore, looking for frogs.")
April 22, 1856 (“A marsh hawk, in the midst of the rain, is skimming along the shore of the meadow, close to the ground, . . . It is looking for frogs.”)
April 24, 1855 ("The Saliz alba begins to leaf. ")
April 24, 1858 ("I go at 8 A.M. to catch frogs to compare with the R. palustris and bull frog which I have, but I find it too cold for them")
April 26, 1854 ("The woods are full of myrtle-birds this afternoon, more common and commonly heard than any, especially along the edge of woods on oaks, etc., — their note an oft-repeated fine jingle, a tea le, tea le, tea le.")
April 29, 1855 ("For two or three days the Salix alba, with its catkins (not yet open) and its young leaves, or bracts (?), has made quite a show, before any other tree, —a pyramid of tender yellowish green in the russet landscape.")
April 30, 1852 ("At Saw Mill Run the swamp gooseberry is partly leaved out. This, . . .methinks is the earliest shrub or tree that shows leaves. [The Missouri currant in gardens is equally forward; the cultivated gooseberry nearly so.]")
April 30, 1855 ("Red-wing blackbirds now fly in large flocks, covering the tops of trees—willows, maples, apples, or oaks—like a black fruit , and keep up an incessant gurgling and whistling.")
April 30, 1855 ("The early willow by Hubbard’s Bridge has not begun to leaf. This would make it a different species from that by railroad, which has.")
April 30, 1856 (“I hear the small pewee’s tche-vet’ repeatedly.”)
April 30, 1856 (“As I go along the Assabet, a peetweet skims away from the shore.”)
April 30, 1859 (Salix alba leafing, or stipules a quarter of an inch wide; probably began a day or two.")
April 30, 1859 ("The viburnum buds are so large and long, like a spear-head, that they are conspicuous the moment their two leafets diverge and they are lit up by the sun.")
May 1, 1854 ("The viburnum (Lentago or nudum) leaves unexpectedly forward at the Cliff Brook and about Miles Swamp.")
May 1, 1854 ("The water is strewn with myriads of wrecked shad-flies, erect on the surface, with their wings up like so many schooners all headed one way.”)
May 1, 1854 (“At Lee's Cliff find the early cinquefoil”)
May 1, 1855 ("The myrtle-bird is one of the commonest and tamest birds now. It catches insects like a pewee, darting off from its perch and returning to it, and sings something like a-chill chill, chill chill, chill chill, a-twear, twill twill twee,")
May 1, 1858 ("I also hear the myrtle-birds on the Island woods. Their common note is somewhat like the chill-lill or jingle of the F. hyemalis.")
May 1, 1858 (“Ephemerae quite common over the water.”)
May 1, 1858 ("I do not see a single R. halecina. What has become of the thousands with which the meadows swarmed a month ago? They have given place to the R. palustris.")
May 1, 1859 ("Looking from Clamshell over Hosmer's meadow, about half covered with water, see hundreds of turtles, chiefly picta, now first lying out in numbers . . .All up and down our river meadows their backs are shining in the sun to-day. It is a turtle day.")
May 3, 1857 ("I hear the soft, purring, stertorous croak of frogs on the meadow.")
May 3, 1854 ("What I have called the small pewee on the willow by my boat, — quite small, uttering a short tchevet from time to time.")
May 3, 1855 ("Small pewee; tchevet, with a jerk of the head.")
May 3, 1857 (“”To-day we sit without fire")
May 3, 1854 (“What I have called the small pewee on the willow by my boat, — quite small, uttering a short tchevet from time to time)
May 3, 1855 “Small pewee; tchevet, with a jerk of the head.”)
May 4, 1855 (" Myrtle-birds numerous, and sing their tea lee, tea lee in morning")
May 4, 1856 ("Shad-flies on the water, schooner-like.”)
May 4, 1856 (“See a peetweet on Dove Rock, which just peeps out. As soon as the rocks begin to be bare the peetweet comes and is seen teetering on them and skimming away from me.”)
May 4, 1856 ("The aspen there [the Island]just begun to leaf.")
May 4, 1858 ("I find hopping in the meadow a Rana halecina, much brighter than any I have seen this year. There is not only a vivid green halo about each spot, but the back is vivid light-green between the spots. I think this was not the case with any of the hundreds I saw a month ago!! Why??")
May 4, 1860 ("Currant out a day or two at least, and our first gooseberry a day later.")
May 5, 1858 ("The aspen leaves at Island to-day appear as big as a nine pence suddenly")
May 5, 1858 ("Saw and heard the small pewee yesterday.”)
May 6, 1858 (“The Salix rostrata staminate flowers are of very peculiar yellow, — a bright, what you might call yellow yellow.”)
May 7, 1852 ("The first summer yellow-birds on the willow causeway. The birds I have lately mentioned come not singly, as the earliest, but all at once, i. e. many yellowbirds all over town. Now I remember the yellowbird comes when the willows begin to leave out. (And the small pewee on the willows also.) ")
May 7, 1852 (“The first small pewee sings now che-vet, or rather chirrups chevet, tche-vet — a rather delicate bird with a large head and two white bars on wings. . . . Now I remember the yellowbird comes when the willows begin to leave out. (And the small pewee on the willows also.) ”)
May 7, 1853 ("As I advance up the Assabet, the lively note of the yellowbird is borne from the willows.")
May 8, 1860 ("The cinquefoil is closed in a cloudy day, and when the sun shines it is turned toward it.")
May 10, 1853 ("At this season the traveller passes through a golden gate on causeways where these willows are planted, as if he were approaching the entrance to Fairyland; and there will surely be found the yellowbird, and already from a distance is heard his note, a tche tche tche tcha tchar tcha, — ah, willow, willow.")
May 10, 1858 ("For some days the Salix alba have shown their yellow wreaths here and there, suggesting the coming of the yellowbird, and now they are alive with them.")
May 17, 1853 ("The early cinquefoil is now in its prime and spots the banks and hillsides and dry meadows with its dazzling yellow. How lively! It is one of the most interesting yellow flowers. ")
May 17, 1860 ("Standing in the meadow near the early aspen at the island, I hear the first fluttering of leaves, - a peculiar sound, at first unaccountable to me”)
May 2, 2014
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 2
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality.”
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2023
https://tinyurl.com/HDT2May
