10 July 1854 – 16 July 1854

Monday. Took up one of the small tor- toise eggs which I had buried June 15th. The eye was remarkable, developed in the colorless and almost formless head, one or two large dark circles of the full diameter; a very distinct pulsation where the heart should be and along the neck was perceptible; but there seemed to be no body but a mass of yellow yolk. P. M.— To Hubbard’s Close, spotted pyrola, and Walden. Gaultheria, apparently two or three days in open ground. Some choke-berry leaves in dry places are now red, some locust leaves and elm leaves yellow. Lycopus sinuatus,a day or two. Platanthera lacera, in one place, apparently a week; Stow’s strawberry meadow ditch. Ludwigia palustris, same place, ap- parently three or four days. Pycnanthemum lanceo- latum, two or three days. Polygala cruciata, Hubbard’s Close, two or three days. I find that most of the wild gooseberries are dried up and blackened. Solidago stricta, apparently to-morrow or next day. Northern wild red cherry ripe apparently some days. Low blackberry. A sericocarpus (?) in Poorhouse Meadow with linear, or narrow-spatulate, entire, blunt leaves. The following are the birds I chanced to hear in this walk (did not attend much): The seringos on fences, link of bobolink, crow, oven-bird, tanager, chewink, huckleberry-bird (pretty often and loud), flicker cackle, wood thrush, robin (?), before 3 p. M.; then red-eye, veery trill, catbird rigmarole, etc., etc. This is what I think about birds now generally: — See a few hawks about. Have not heard owls lately, not walking at night. Crows are more noisy, probably anxious about young. Hear pheebe note of chickadee occasionally; otherwise inobvious. Partridge, young one third grown. Lark not very common, but sings still. Have not heard conqueree of blackbird for about a month, methinks.’ Robin still sings, and in morning; song sparrow and bay-wing. See no downy woodpeckers nor nuthatches. Crow blackbirds occasionally chatter. Hear flicker rarely. Rush sparrow, common and loud. Saw a snipe within two or three days.’ Woodcock seen within two or three days. Think I have heard pine warbler within a week. Cuckoo and quail from time to time. Barn swallow, bank swallow, etc., numerous with their young for a week or two. I hear the plaintive note of young bluebirds. Chip-sparrow in morning. Purple finch about and sings. Martin lively. Warbling vireo still, and wood thrush, and red-eye, and tanager, all at midday. Catbird’s rigmarole still. Chewink sings; and veery trill from out shade. Whip-poor-will at evening. Summer yellowbird and yellow-throat rarely. Goldfinch oftener twitters over. Oven-bird still. Evergreen-forest note, I think, still. Night-warbler of late. Hardly a full bobolink. Kingbird lively. Cherry-bird commonly heard. Think I saw turtle dove within a day or two. The singing birds at present are: — Villageous: Robin, chip-bird, warbling vireo, swallows. Rural: Song sparrow, seringos, flicker, kingbird, goldfinch, link of bobolink, cherry-bird. Sylvan: Red-eye, tanager, wood thrush, chewink, veery, oven-bird, — all even at midday. Catbird full strain, whip-poor-will, crows.

Tuesday. P. M. — By boat to Fair Haven. White geum, probably about the 5th (not the 3d). Pontederia now makes a handsome show. The female red-wings and their young now fly in small chattering flocks over the river. The smallest-flowered hypericum, several days; have I mentioned it? Purple utricularia well out since the 5th; say 7th. The black high blue- berries are a trifle earlier, small and acid. The Rosa lucida still common. Utricularia cornuta at Fair Haven, apparently two days. The water-target 1s common off this shore. Hypericum corymbosum in front of Lee’s Cliff, a day or two. The drought is very obvious on these rocks now, which are so verdurous in spring. The ivy (Toxicodendron), Arenaria serpyllifolia, etc., are quite sere and brown. Pennyroyal, thimble-ber- ries, and ferns also are withering. Some huckleberries quite as if dried on a pan. Ampelopsis out three or four days on the rock. Parietaria, apparently two or three days against rock. Handsome now from these rocks the bay (on the south a side of Fair Haven at the inlet of river), with its spit of shining pads. Lobelia inflata, a day or more. Veronica serpyllifolia about done. There is much large bur-reed leaves afloat and lodged in the middle of the river at Clamshell Bend. Did the wind tear it up? I heard Conant’s cradle cronching the rye behind the fringe of bushes in the Indian field. Reaping begun. Sun set when [I was off Nut Meadow. A straight edge of massy cloud had advanced from the south-southeast and now stretched overhead from west-southwest to east-northeast, and after sunset reflected a soft fawn-colored (?) light on the landscape, lighting up with harmonious light the dry parched and shorn hillsides, the soft, mellow, fawn-colored light seeming to come from the earth itself.

P. M. — To Dodge’s Brook.