1892
April 17
Concord, Massachusetts
Mass.
Concord. - Clear & cool with high N.W. wind. Cloudy
in the evening with a few dashes of rain, the
first for weeks.
  Spent the morning about the house. Saw
 a [female] Sharp-shinned Hawk beat along the pine
hedge and then rising high in air drift off before the wind soaring.
[margin]Accipiter velox[/margin]
  At 5 P.M. started down river in my Rob Roy
under sail. A few Red-wings singing. It was
nearly sunset when I reached Ball's Hill. A
Hermit Thrush in the bushes by the river.
Walked around the hill, through the swamp,
and beyond to Davis's hill. A full chorus
of Hylas in my pond where Wood Frogs held
exclusive possession a week ago. I silenced them by
walking around the pond and to my surprise they
did not resume their peeping again, at least for
the two hours I was at the hill.
  A Robin was singing on a maple near the sand-
ditch and a Carolina Dove cooing at short
intervals in the pines by the glacial hollow, another
answering from the Davis hill pines. The coo
of the first was regularly thus whicky coo . . . .
coo, coo, coo. Sometimes there were but two coos
after the long pause. The tone was exceedingly pure
resonant and solemn - but not in the least
mournful to my ears.
[margin]Carolina Dove[/margin]
  As I was eating lunch at my house in the twilight
two Night Herons & four Black Ducks flew past.
  It was dark when I paddled home. Heard only
a few Leopard Frogs - no birds of any kind.