1892
May 28
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord.  Clear and warm with soft but strong and
remarkable steady W to N. W. wind all day.
[margin]Ball's Hill[/margin]
  To Ball's Hill by canoe at 9.30 a.m. sailing all
the way and talking the short cut across the meadows.
One rarely has such a perfect sailing breeze, even in
midsummer, for it was not only steady but very strong.
Just before starting I heard an Indigo Bird singing
on Honeywell Island. As I crossed the Great
Meadows I passed close to some clumps of
nearly new nests of Red-wings built, I should
say, since the waters rose as never contained eggs.
Along the river the nests were nearly if not quite
all submerged and the birds must have laid in
some of them before the great rain came. Their
broods will be late this year. The Bobolinks
have had no such trouble as the water did not
cover the ridge on which they nest so unanimously.
[margin]Red-wings nests destroyed by flood[/margin]
  On reaching Ball's Hill  I walked along the
river front to see what migrants were there. I
found two Water Thrushes, one Alice's Thrush, two
or three Cat-birds and a few Black-polls. There
was also a Flycatcher which [delete]although not at
all shy - in fact tame enough at times[/delete] I could
not see very distinctly on account of the now
dense foliage but which I at once decided
to be a Traill's Flycatcher although he was
perfectly silent and very tame - two qualities
not often to be noted with this species. He
flitted from tree to tree as  I advanced keeping
only ten or twelve yards ahead of us and
[margin]Traill's Flycatcher[/margin]