1891
May 15
Evening in Fresh Pond Swamps.
Mass.
Cambridge - Clear and cool with E. wind clouds gathering
at sunset and a dash of rain at about 8 P.M.
  At 4 P.M. I started on foot for the swamps passing
through Appleton St. and thence across the fields. Heard
the first Song Sparrow at the junction of Appleton St.
and Vassal Lane. Robins very numerous & I counted
twenty-four between my house and the first brick yard.
On entering the Brickyard Swamp I found it fast
disappearing into the maw of the insatiable stream
shovel which has extended the clay pits to within
less than forty yards of the Watertown branch R.R.
opposite the maple swamp. The intervening space
had been cleared of bushes and the peaty ground
was on fire in several places. The excavation discloses
but few stumps and those small a fact which
surprises me. One stump looked like that of a young 
pine. The entire swamp east of the railroad is now
completely drained and as dry as my garden.
The clear old Maple Swamp has suffered no injuries
whatever during the past year. It is an oasis in
the midst of a dreary desert. In its luxuriant
thickets Pyrus arbutifolia was nearly in flower to-day.
The place held a fair number of birds but very
many less than last year. The scarcity of Yellow 
Warblers was unaccountable. I saw and heard only
five in all. There were two Redstarts, several
Maryland Yellow-throats, a Crow flying about & cawing
anxiously and a Flicker shouting besides a pair
of Least Flycatchers, a pair of Yellow-throated
vireos, two Wilson's Thrushes (silent) and a few 
Song & Swamp Sparrows. Saw only on Red-wing and no