1998
April 26
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Fair with occasional periods of sunshine several light showers. Wind S.
  Off at 9.30 a.m. driving to Alewife  Brook where, dismissing
George & the horse, I plunged into the swamp. As I forced my
way through the brush I disturbed a Robin at work on her nest
in a maple fork. Red-wing Blackbirds, Swamp Sparrows, and
a few Song Sparrows singing in the thickets about me. Saw fresh
musk rat tracks on the mud. Reaching the tall maples I
found in them a pair of Chickadees and a Flicker, the latter
"laughing" at frequent intervals. In the distance several
Crow Blackbirds were calling. A few Hyla pickruiger piping
in the wooded swamp, many toads (Bufo americana) trilling out
in the open meadow between the two groves of maples. At
least half a dozen Red-wings in this meadow scattered about
singing on the tops of low bushes over the water.
  Crossing this opening I entered the bushy meadow next
the railroad and looked closely for Virginia Rails in
its scattered clusters of bushes but, although old droppings
were numerous, I could find no birds. Seeing a pair
of Grackles (Q. aureus) alight behind me I retraced my
steps and found them in some dense alders along a
ditch where they behaved very like Rusty Blackbirds
feeding along the edge of the water and flitting from
cove to cove as I followed then continuously. Finally I
shot the male in a low alder and the female on the top of
a tall maple to which she flew. I lost the male although
he certainly did not fly. He was probably only wing broken
and escaped into a bordering tangle of button bushes where
I traced him a little way, indeed, by an occasional
feather.
  I next crossed the railroad and began to look rather
carefully for Snipe, especially as I had heard a dozen