One a day, plus iron

So I'm paging through the field notebook "Field notes and collection lists of Odonata and Lepidoptera (Pennsylvania, New Jersey)" in the George and Alice Beatty Papers and on page 5 & 6, he has the following information:

Tuesday, 3 April, 1945

For comparison in future years, the following notes on the development of the vegetation were taken:

Many leaves on blackberry stalks
Jack-in-the-Pulpit 4" high (or more)
Mayapples at least half developed
small everlastings (??? sp)
blooming in perfusion
Skunk cabbage 6" to 8" high
Leaves of sassafras about half developed

Now, if you don't spend a lot of time out in squishy territory in early spring, this might look like shit to you. But it isn't. It's a pretty good picture of how far along spring is, and the diversity of species he lists helps level out the weather peaks and valleys.

Most all of his field notebook entries contain...

date (eg. 23 April 1945)

a description of the weather (A rather dull day, occasional breeze, 70F)

time he spent observing (12 noon - 4 pm)

location (Gladwyne, PA) with additional details if needed

There's usually a list of species viewed, with hash mark counts out to the side. Sometimes there are the male and female marks and separate counts for each, sometimes not. But then there are notes -- it's not just "5 of these and 4 of those" but also there are remarks like "At Gladwyne, S. melinus was found for the first time this year but the individuals taken were rather worn, indicating that emergence must have begun at least a week ago."

I'm actually not kidding about the "return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear" part.