1892.
Aug. 2
(No 2)
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord.- The season of ripe blueberries is now at its height; I
wonder what mammals eat them. In the Bateman's Pond wood
road on the top of a rock I found excrement which I
supposed to be that of a Fox until I saw that it was entirely
made up of the skins and stems of ripe blueberries with two or
three green, whole berries mixed in. It may have come from a
Woodchuck but after examining it carefully I was still of the
opinion that it was Fox excrement.
[margin]Does the Fox
eat blueberries[/margin]

  The fire which ran so fiercely last Novembber hrough the
woods between Ash Swamp and Bateman's Pond did little damage
to anything besides the barberry and blueberry bushes, the ground
juniper, and the smallest cedar & pine saplings. The birches, oaks
maples and even pines of above ten or fifteen feet in height looked
to-day perfectly vigorous. This surprises me in view of the sad
effects of the fire at Ball's Hill. Evidently the heat does most
injury when the sap is running up.
[margin]Effects of fire
on young woods.[/margin]

  The only birds which now sing freely at all hours are Song
Sparrows, Chippies and Tanagers. I am surprised to find
that the Grass Finch becomes silent before the Song Sparrow but
such is the case, at least this year. I still hear Robins, Warbling,
Yellow-throated, and Red-eyed Vireos, Black-billed Cuckoos, Meadow
Larks, Field Sparrows, and Red-winged Blackbirds daily but with
all of them silence is the rule and song the exception.
[margin]Birds in song[/margin]

  The woods to-day impressed me chiefly with a sense
of gloom and vacancy due partly, no doubt, to the lowering
weather but chiefly to the general absence of bird sounds
and to the density of the foliage. I felt constantly an
almost uncontrolable desire to escape from this oppressive shade.
[margin]Midsummer woods.[/margin]