Concord, Mass.
1895
April 7
  Cloudy with occasional light showers. Calm most of the day.
  I sailed down river before a near breath of S.W. wind in the
early forenoon and gave a dinner at the cabin to the
young ladies of the Keyes' family. Red-wings and Song Sparrows
sang all day long and I heard a Phoebe and a Bluebird
at Flint's Bridge. An Osprey was circling over Mill Brook
meadow when I started & I saw either the same bird or
another at the Holt perched on a maple. When he flew
he carried with him in his talons a large fish.
  A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks seem to have established
themselves on Holden's Hill and I think that they are
intending to breed there. As I passed this morning the female
came flying in over the meadows and alighted within two
feet of her mate on the branch of a tall chestnut when
both sat screaming loudly until I was out of sight. I
noticed a nest the other day which I suspect is theirs as I
have never seen it before but it is curiously placed for a
Hawk's nest - well out on the horizontal branch of a white
pine. There were several fresh hawk droppings directly beneath it.
Goosanders were flying about all day and a flock of ten
Golden-eyes passed high over Ball's hill. Their wings whistled
so loudly that one could hear the sound distinctly when
the birds were fully a mile away.
  After my guests had departed I was sitting on the
ground on the crest of Ball's Hill when, to my no small
surprise, a Barred Owl hooted six or eight times in
quick succession. He seemed to be in one of the large maples
on the Bedford Shore directly opposite the cabin but I could
not see him. I do not remember ever hearing one of these
owls hoot before in or near Concord.