Morning in the Fresh Pond Swamps
1981
May 4
Mass.
Cambridge. - Clear with bracing rather high N.W. wind. Cool, yet not chilly.
  George drove me to the swamps this morning at 9 o'clock
meeting me at the cross roads beyond Fresh Pond and bringing me
home at 1.30 P.M.
  I entered the Maple Swamp from the turnpike via the east
bank of Alewife Brook. The white willows near the cause were
in full bloom and harbored swarms of bees besides a small flock
of Yellow-rumped Warblers. In the dense tangle of alders and wild rose
bushes a little back from the road a Water Thrush was singing at
regular intervals, not only as I passed but for the half hour or
more afterwards that I was within hearing. It was the only one
that I saw or heard during the morning. There were also a
few Crow Blackbirds in these thickets, perhaps three or four in all.
  The tall red maples and swamp oaks in the Maple Swamp had
only begun to expand their leaves which were not large or dense
enough to cast any appreciable shade. There were some more
Yellow-rumps in them, however, as well as a Flicker "shouting" and
several silent Robins. Also two or three Yellow Warblers but no Least
Flycatchers or Redstarts. The thickets of wild cherry, viburnums, azalea
poplar etc. on the middle island were in 1/4 to 1/2 leaf and
the foliage dense enough in places to be impervious to the eye
yet there were no birds here - literally not one. I waded around
Heron Pool hoping to find a Crow Blackbird nest in the encircling
alders where the little colony bud last season but I saw only one
bird and no nests. Started a Night Heron here.
  On first entering the Maple Swamp I had twice started a bird
at which I could not get a fair sight but which flitted along
close to the ground among dense bushes precisely like a Robin.
It appeared much larger, however, and I set it down as a
Sharp-shinned Hawk, a surmise which proved correct for
returning past the edge of the woods I saw it rise and
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