1892
Sept. 22
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord. Early part of day clear; afternoon cloudy & still. Warm.
  Spent the forenoon in the house writing, A Pine Warbler
sang many times in the elms in front of my window. Also
heard a Canada Nuthatch in these trees.
  At 4 p.m. started up river with C. We turned into the
Assobet and found a great many birds there; 40 robins
(I counted them) in one flock flying over the trees, some of
them alighting for a moment, a Pine Warbler singing in the old
hemlocks, a Pewee and a Kingfisher perched on dead branches
over the river, and Black-poll Warblers everywhere (the last 
were abundant today for the first time). There were also
Jays & Crows of course and I saw one Water Thrush picking
its way with pretty mincing steps and wagging tail over the
mud on the water's edge beneath a canopy of wild grape
vines. A Cat Bird flew across the stream.
[margin]Black-poll arrive in force[/margin]
  On our return two hours later we heard two Song Sparrows 
in full song. One, sitting in the top of a button bush, chanted
at short, regular intervals, precisely as in spring. I heard
a third singing near the house this morning. All three were
evidently old birds. They are the first that I have heard singing
since sometime in August. The young have been warbling, in their
broken, whispering tones, most of this month.
[margin]Song Sparrows resume singing after a long period of total silence.[/margin]
  As we were passing the Mill brook meadow a Night-hawk
mounted straight upward to a height of about 30 feet, probably
after some flying insect, then dropped vertically nearly to the
ground and was lost to sight behind the belt of tall
grasses which fringe the river bank.