1892
May 20
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord. - A cold N. E. rain-storm, wind blowing a gale all
the forenoon & rain falling in torrents, wind dying away to
faint breeze in P.M. & rain abating to a fine intermittent
drizzle.
  Spent the forenoon in or near the house. In spite of the
violence of the storm heard Bobolinks and Red-wings singing
and a Water Thrush somewhere on the river bank.
  At 3 P.M. put on rubber boots & a mackintosh and
started for a walk. As I was leaving the house a Yellow-billed
Cuckoo, wet and bedraggled and apparently nearly exhausted,
glided past me & alighted on the handle of a pump. I got
within a few feet of it before it flew again. I saw another
shy & active one in a thicket on the roadside shortly after.
Entering Derby's lane I found a small flock of Warblers,
the majority Redstarts, in the young pines & oaks near the
path. It was a great Redstart day, evidently, for I saw
others in various places, usually from two to five together,
the majority adult males.
[margin]Yellow bill Cuckoos[/margin]
[margin]Abundance of
Redstarts[/margin]
  Grosbeaks were also unusually numerous; in one place there
were three, two [female] & one [male], together. They were all in trees
or bushes on the outskirts of the woods as indeed were
most of the birds that I met, the wood interiors holding
nothing but Oven-birds, Jays, and, in one grove of tall
chestnuts, two male Tanagers.
[margin]Rose br. Grosbeaks[/margin]
  A Jay in a belt of trees along a wall mimiced a
Chat so perfectly as to deceive me for some time. It
gave the long series of whistles of the Chat. I also heard
a Brown Thrasher interpolate a perfect imitation
of the Oven-birds tea-cha notes in its song.
[margin]Blue Jay
mimics Chat[/margin]
[margin]Brown Thrasher
mimics the
Oven birds song[/margin]
  The Rhodora about Rhodora pool was in full bloom
& very beautiful in the soft gray light. Ladies slippers