1892
Sept. 23
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord.- A cloudy morning, warm with South wind and a feeling of
rain in the air but most of the clouds dispersed & the sun came
out clear & hot before noon.
  Took a long drive with C. in the forenoon starting at 8.30 and
getting back at noon. We went through the Estabrook road nearly
to Carlisle, then turned east and followed the Bedford road to
the forks near the river and back by way of Punkatassett.
The foliage was very brilliant in the swamps where red maples
abounded and the poison dogwoods were conspicuous along the edges
of the meadows. In the upland woods some of the hickories had turned
to gold and there were patches of color everywhere but the oaks are
little changed as yet. Some of the finest effects were by the roadsides
when the smooth sumacs and blackberry vines mingled their deep
wine red with the gold of the golden rods and the purple of
the asters.
[margin]Autumn tints[/margin]
  Small birds were very numerous; Robins, Bluebirds and Flickers
in the orchards and pastures, Chipping Sparrows rising in clouds
from weedy fields and alighting all over the trees & bushes by the
roadside, Jays screaming in the woods Towhees scolding in the wayside thickets and shy, timid
Warblers (most of these D. striata, probably) flitting in the
foliage of the oaks & birches, lisping to one another. I saw
a single Junco with Chipping Sparrows in an orchard and an
Oven-bird and Water Thrush in dry oak woods on the crest of
a ridge. The Water Thrush looked so unfamiliar as he flew from
the ground to a stone wall that I got out & followed him before
I could identify him to my satisfaction. Heard a Canada Nuthatch.
[margin]Small birds
numerous[/margin]
[margin]Water Thrush
in dry oak woods[/margin]
  The most interesting bird of all was a Broad-winged Hawk, a
young ♀[female] in fresh autumn plumage, that was sitting very erect close to
the trunk of a small oak within 20 ft. of the road. I stopped the horse
directly opposite the tree and we looked at the bird a full minute before it flew.
[margin]Buteo pennsyl-
vanicus[/margin]