1888
June 15
Winchendon, Massachusetts.
Morning clear and warm. Afternoon cloudy with heavy
thunder shower about 5 o'clock and a superb sunset
later.
  Off at 9 A. M. following the lane through the swamp
and spending most of the forenoon in the wood path
beyond. The day was still and birds sang very freely.
The woods were everywhere alive with three D. virens,
D. blackburniae, and Turdus pallasi being especially
numerous. Of D. blackburniae we must have heard at
least 20 males in our piece of spruce woods, - that
along the wood-path. At the entrance to this path
a D. maculosa was singing and Denton quickly found
its nest in a spruce sapling near the path. The [female] was
sitting on four eggs.
  Among the taller spruces we searched long for a nest
of D. blackburniae but in vain. Bailey, however, found
the nest of what must be D. virens in a hemlock, not
over 12 ft up and built directly against the trunk resting
on small lateral twigs. It was evidently just begun - the
merest framework of slender twigs & fibers outlining its
intended shape. He saw the bird go to it twice but could
not make her out satisfactorily.
  I noticed to-day that Warblers of several species,
especially D. virens, D. blackburniae & Parula had their
favorite singing stations; that is each [male] did. A Parula
was singing in a certain hemlock all the forenoon.
  Bailey & Denton went out again in the afternoon
but I felt too ill to accompany them. They got
in just before the shower, having found nothing.
In the morning I shot a Night-hawk that was passing
by the house.