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[?: November?] through 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]