1892
Feb.21.25
Concord, Massachusetts.
[margin]Ball's Hill[/margin]
Mass.
Concord.- During these five days the weather has been
uniformly warm the thermometer ranging from 40[degrees] to 45[degrees]
at noon and seldom falling much below 30[degrees] at night.
The wind has remained constantly in the E. or N. E.
Monday (22nd) was clear, the other four days have
been cloudy but we have had no rain or snow. The
snow which for the preceding two or three weeks has
covered the ground to the depth of a foot or more
has melted so gradually that the brooks & river have
not been perceptibly swollen although now the ground
is bare in many places (the S. side of Ball's Hill is
entirely bare) and the sleighing is all gone.
  I spent all of the five days just mentioned at
Ball's Hill superintending the erection of my log house.
Spelman & Hayward with me on the 22nd when we
found a number of water beetles, including six specimens
of the large Dytiscus verticalis, in or near holes in
the ice which the pickerel fishermen have cut.
[margin]Dytiscus.[/margin]
On this day I also saw the first Skunk tracks.
On the evening of the 24th I saw a beautiful
adult [male] Golden-eye flying over a space of open
water just above Benson's landing. It had apparently
just risen from the water and after circling a few
times flew off up river its wings whistling loudly.
[margin]Golden-eye
Duck.[/margin]
  There was a Brown Creeper in the pines on Ball's
Hill on the 25th (the first I have seen there since Dec.)
and a Hairy & Downy Woodpecker in the oaks on
the back side of the hill.
[margin]Creeper[/margin]
[margin]Hairy &
Downy W'ps[[/margin]
  By evening of the 25th the river was entirely
open from Manse to Ball's Hill.