1887
May 13
Concord, Massachusetts.
Clear with a chill east wind.
  Spent the morning in the my canoe going
down river to Ball's Hill. The day was windy
and cold with almost no birds singing at 
all freely. I paddled down and sailed the 
entire distance back.
  Solitary Sandpipers were unusually numerous.
I must have seen at least a dozen of which
I shot four, killing them with my 32 cal. pistol.
They were scattered along from the Minute Man
nearly to Balls Hill, rarely more than one in 
a place. Part of them (perhaps half) were in
thickets of button bushes or river maples from
which they would start with great outcry
often after I had passed without seeing them.
  There were few Red-wings along the banks, in
fact few birds of any kind. I heard a 
Water Thrush singing and a Bittern looming.
Swallows were especially scarce; I saw lies than
thirty in all, chiefly Barn Swallows.
  At Ball's Hill I found a number of Warblers
in the oaks on the shuttered side. They were mostly
Yellow- rumps and Creepers (Minotitta) with a high
adult female D. Striata. There were also a pair of
Pine Warblers of which I shot the female an exceptionally
bright specimens. To my surprise I found an
dissecting her that she had laid all her eggs
and was incubating. There was a single Lanager,
also, in these oaks. 
  On the way home I sailed to within about 25 yds.
of a Green Heron sitting on a tussock and by great
good luck killed it with my little 32 cals piston. 20