1891.
Nov. 11
Concord, Massachusetts.
Concord. - Cloudy and very warm with heavy showers at 
intervals. The sky cleared soon after dark and the night
was fine and still.
[margin]A day at Ball's Hill[/margin]
  Having completed (on Saturday last) my negotiations
with Mr. Holden for the purchase of Ball's Hill I went
there this morning by boat & alone to make a
thorough examination of the woods and cut a few
paths through them. I paddled all the way down
as the morning was very calm and warm and I
was in no hurry. A few Tree Sparrows in the button
bushes over the water, several Blue Jays in the 
leafless maples on the banks, and a Red-shouldered Hawk
which started from an oak on the meadow as my boat
came in sight around a bend were all the birds I
saw except a flock of Horned Larks, twenty five in
number, wheeling about in air over, and finally alighting
in, a broad, level field on the north sides of the river
just beyond Hunt's Pond. This field is intervale
land perfectly drained and intensely green to-day with
what appeared to be winter wheat. As far as I can
learn the Horned Larks do not alight in the river
meadows (or marshes) at all.
[margin]Horned Larks[/margin]
  On Ball's Hill I heard Kinglets (satrapa) and
Chickadees. A Pickering's Hyla was calling feebly at
intervals.
  I got rather wet during the frequent showers but
did not start for home until nearly dark. As I 
passed Holden's meadow a large bird which I took at
first for a Great horned Owl but afterwards decided
to be a Buteo rose from the grass & flew off over the
woods. I also saw a mouse of some kind swimming
the river. It dove as adroitly as a Musk rat when I chased it. 
[margin]Mouse swims across the river[/margin]