May 6

Posted by sydney on May 6th, 2009
  • 1792: May 6, 1792 – During the severe winds it is not easy to say how the Hirundines subsist; for they withdraw themselves, & are hardly ever seen, nor do any insects appear for their support. That they can retire to rest, & sleep away these uncomfortable periods, as the bats do, is a matter to be suspected rather than proved: or do they not rather spend their time in deep & shelt’red vales near waters, where insects are more likely to be found? Certain it is, that hardly any individuals of this Genus have been seen for several days together.
  • 1790: May 6, 1790 – Mrs Chandler brought to bed of a daughter at the parsonage-house.
  • 1788: May 6, 1788 – The wood-lark sings in the air at three in the morning: stone curlews pass over the village at that hour.
  • 1787: May 6, 1787 – Timothy, the tortoise, who has just begun to eat, weighs 6 ae, 12 1/2 oz.  Agues are much about at Hawkley, & Emshot, & Newton; & in Selborne street.
  • 1786: May 6, 1786 – Great showers, & hail all around.  Showers of hail at a distance look of a silvery colour.  Rain-bow.  The hanger is bursting into leaf every hour.  A progress in the foliage may be discerned every morning, & again every evening.
  • 1784: May 6, 1784 – Pulled the first radishes.  Crown-imperials & fritillaria’s blown.  Shot two more green-finches.  There is a ring-dove’s nest in the American Juniper in the shrubbery: but as that spot begins to be much frequented, the brood will scarcely come to good.
  • 1783: May 6, 1783 – Some ponds, & ditches dry, & cleansed out.
  • 1780: May 6, 1780 – Made an hot-bed for the hand-glasses. I opened a hen swift, which a cat had caught, & found she was in high condition, very plump & fat: in her body were the rudiments of several eggs, two of which were larger than the rest, & would probably have been produced this season. Cats often catch swifts as they stoop to go under the eaves of houses.
    The quantity of rain that feel at Selborne between May 1st 1779, & May 1st 1780.


    inch:
    hund:

    In May 1779 . . . .
    2:
    71

    June . . . .
    2:
    0

    July . . . .
    5:
    35

    August . . . .
    2:
    12

    September . . . .
    3:
    22

    October . . . .
    4:
    3

    November . . . .
    2:
    66

    December . . . .
    6:
    28

    January 1780 . . . .
    1:
    80

    February . . . .
    1:
    3

    March . . . .
    1:
    92

    April . . . .
    3:
    57

    . . . .
    36:
    69

  • 1774: May 6, 1774 – The redstart whistles perching on the tops of tall trees near houses.  Few swifts yet.  In Devon near Exeter Swallows did not arrive ’til April 25; & house martins not ’til the middle of May.  Swifts were seen in plenty on May 1st.  At Blackburn in Lancashire swifts were seen April 28: Swallows April 29.  House-martins May 1st.  In some former years, I see, house-martins have not appeared ’til the beginning of May the case was the same this Year & yet they afterwards abounded.  These long delays are more in favour of migration than of a torpid state.  House-martins afterwards were very plenty.
  • 1772: May 6, 1772 – Dark, sun hot & harsh air.  Rumbling wind.

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