1889
(April 11)
Then a pair of Cooper's Hawks were soaring over the
pine clad hill to the west where I found the young
in 1886 and 1887. Doubtless they will breed there again this
year.
  The main object of our trip to-day was to revisit
the Bedford Swamp when the Red-tailed Hawks bred
last year in the hope of getting another set of their
eggs. The river was so low that we had to land at the
outer birch island and cross the intervening meadows on
foot. As we approached the pines a Red-tail flew out
from them, and we felt sure of a second nest but
a c;lose search failed to reveal one and during the two
hours or more that we  spent on or near them we did
not see either of the Hawks again. Denton climbed to
the old nest & found it deserted and dilapidated. In these
woods we saw literally only one bird besides the Hawk, 
a Woodpecker which looked like Sphyrap[icus but which I
could  not identify certainly.
  After lunch we  crossed the river and spent an hour
in the Cooper's Hawk woods and the adjoining Sandy field.
On the edge of the latter among some birches interspersed
with pines, we flushed a pair of Carolina Doves. On of them
alighted in a birch when I shot at it wounding it badly. It
flew out over the field then returned alighting again in the
birches when Denton finished it with his 32 cal[ibre]. I heard a
Sitta canadensis and saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk. A few
Fox Sparrows scratching among the leaves on the edge of the woods.
  On the way up river saw six Sheldrake (two fine drakes) &
a few Red-wings sitting on the trees & bushes but none singing.
Tree Sparrows numerous in the button bushes, At the Manse at
sunset, Robins & one Meadow Lark singing. A pair of Sitta
carolinensis at the boathouse landing. Watched the female into her nest
in an old Woodpeckers hole in the elm. It was practically inaccessible