March 20
Posted by sydney on Mar 20th, 2009
- 1793: March 20, 1793 – Planted 30 cauliflowers brought from Mareland; & a row of red cabbages. The ground is so glutted with rain that men can neither plow, nor sow, nor dig.
- 1791: March 20, 1791 – Mr Burbey shot a cock Gross-beak which he had observed to haunt his garden for more than a fortnight. Dr Chandler had also seen it in his garden. I began to accuse this bird of making sad havock among the buds of the cherries, goose-berries, & wall-fruit of all the neighbouring orchards. Upon opening its crop & craw, no buds were to be seen; but a mass of kernels of the stones of fruits. Mr B. observed that this bird frequented the spots where plum-trees grow; & that he had seen it with some what hard in it’s mouth which it broke with difficulty; these were the stones of damasons. The latin Ornithologists call this bird Coccothraustes, i.e., berry-breaker, because with it’s large horny beak it cracks & breaks the shells of stone-fruits for the sake of the seed or kernel. Birds of this sort are rarely seen in England, & only in winter. About 50 years ago I discovered three of these gross-beaks in my outlet, one of which I shot.
- 1790: March 20, 1790 – That noise in the air of some thing passing quick over our heads after it becomes dark, & which we found last year proceeded from the Stone-curlew, has now been heard for a week or more. Hence it is plain that these birds, which undoubtedly leave us for the winter, return in mild seasons very soon in the spring; & are the earliest summer birds that we have noticed. They seem always to go down from the uplands towards the brooks, & meads. The next early summer bird that we have remarked is the smallest Willow-wren, or chif-chaf; it utters two sharp, piercing notes, so loud in the hollow woods at to occasion an echo, & is usually first heard about the 20th of March.
- 1788: March 20, 1788 – Violent hail-storm, which filled the gutter, & came in & flooded the stair-case; & came down the chinmies & wetted the floors.
- 1787: March 20, 1787 – Sent me from South Lambeth, two Nectarine-trees; several sorts of curious pinks; some mulberry rasps some scarlet lichnis’s; a root of Monk’s rhubarb.
- 1786: March 20, 1786 – Sowed six rows of garden-beans in the meadow; & two in the garden. Chif-chaf is heard: his notes are loud, & piercing.
- 1782: March 20, 1782 – The wheat-ear is seen on our down.
- 1780: March 20, 1780 – We took the tortoise out of it’s box, & buried it in the garden: but the weather being warm it heaved up the mould, & walked twice down to the bottom of the long walk to survey the premises.
- 1773: March 20, 1773 – Lacerta. Sky thickens with flisky clouds.
- 1770: March 20, 1770 – Swan-goose, anser cygeus guineensis, sits. The peacock, pavo, asserts his gallantry when the hens appear: “… whose gay train/Adorns him color’d with the florid hue/Of rainbows, & starry eyes. — Milton
- 1769: March 20, 1769 – Young cucumber swells. The great bed heats well.
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