1892
March 25
Concord, Massachusetts.
Ball's Hill.
Mass.
Concord. - Cloudless with tender blue sky and warm sun.
Moderate W. wind, dying away entirely before sunset. Ther.
30[degrees] at sunrise, 48[degrees] at noon. Decidedly the pleasantest
and most spring-like day thus far.
  To Ball's Hill by boat, paddling down with my double blade.
Started a pair of Hooded Mergansers and four Black D.;
the former were swimming in the river a little
above Hunt's pond and rose when I was fully 150 yds.
away. Can they be the same birds which I saw on
this stretch of the river March 10th? The Black Ducks
rose from a pond in the meadow ice. I started
the Mergansers a second time near Dakin's hill.
At the head of Beaverdam rapid two adult
Herring Gulls, the first I have seen here this
spring, were sitting on the edge of the ice - When
they saw me they rose and after circling a
few times flew off down river.
[margin]Hooded Mergan-
sers[/margin]
[margin]Herring Gulls[/margin]
  I heard no Bluebirds or Song Sparrows after leaving
Flints bridge but Roland Hayward who walked
down to the Hill to see us late in the afternoon
heard and saw both along the road over Punkatasset.
Muskrats were out in the sun to-day for the first
time. I saw them at about 10 A.M. swimming
across the river. As the river is not higher now
than it has repeatedly been during the winter I
suspect that the Muskrats came out by day at this
season to bask in the rays of the sun.
[margin]Muskrats
sunning[/margin]
  As Hayward and I rowed up the river a little
before sunset the wind had died entirely and the 
evening was as calm & peaceful as possible. Bluebirds
were warbling delightfully but no Song Sparrows sang. Saw
a Gray Squirrel clinging to a birch near on the river.
[margin]Gray Squirrel[/margin]