1893
May 15
Concord,Mass.
 Forenoon clear, dead calm & very warm,indeed oppressively as
sky filled with masses of cumulus clouds during most of
the afternoon and a light S.E. breeze blowing.
[margin]Ball's Hill[/margin]
 To Ball's Hill at 8:30A.M.paddling across the
meadows. The water is falling fast, however, & the
grass is beginning to appear. The air was a still that
while I was in the very middle of the Great Meadow
I could hear every bird that sang on either shore. The
air was filled with their urine but I heard nothing
new except a cuckoo (erythropthalmus). The Bittern was
pumping persistently exactly where I left him last
night.
[margin]Birds along
the river meadows[/margin]
 I had a hard day's work planting hemlocks with pot.
There was little time to watch the birds but they were
evidently much less numerous than yesterday. Along
the river front was the cabin I saw three or four
mature thrashers, two veeries, and a Maryland yellow throat
or two.
  I sailed back across the meadows at evening.
Veeries calling but I have not heard one sing yet.
Boblinks have increased in numbers very perceptibly
since yesterday. Saw the first female this morning three
males chasing her. Muskrats at their [?] again
wailing & murmuring all along the river banks. I
saw four of them. First Bull Frog tromping. First Dor Beetle this evening.
A hawk which looked like cooperi entered the pines
near the glacial hollow bearing a bird in its labours
& flying heavily. Can it be that the Cooper's Hawks are
still hunting the woods. I also saw a [female] Marsh Hawk &
a Red Tail. Hylas still peeping at night. A few toads trilling [?]
[margin]First Bull Frog[/margin]