Concord, Massachusetts
1895
March 31
  The month came in "like a lamb" and is going out
"like a lion". Although the sky was cloudless and the
sun deliciously warm at noon the ground was frozen hard
& the meadows skimmed with ice this morning and all
day long the northern wind raged across the frozen, lifeless fields
and roared through the walled, shivering woods. It is true
that the Song Sparrows sang noisily through the forenoon
and I saw a Phoebe in the early morning but during
most of the day the aspect of the country chilled
and depressed me. The snow banks have lost their winter
purity and freshness and the barn fields & wooded slopes
look bleached and dreary enough. A little before sunset,
however, the wind lulled to a moderate breeze and to
my great delight Red-winged Blackbirds appeared from
I know not where and, perched on the tops of the isolated
maples and climb along the vine, made the air ring with
thin coug-quer-ces. I had sailed down to Ball's Hill
in the early afternoon and was paddling homeward when
at the foot of Barrett's bar I first heard this dear, familiar
spring voice and saw its author expand his wings to
show his brilliant epaulettes. Between this point and the
northern bridge I counted no less than seven red-wings
all in full song.
  A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks are haunting Holden's Hill.
As I passed there to-day, keeping close in shore to avoid the
wind, the female a fine large bird in full plumage, flew 
from an oak that overhung the water startling me with
her shrill screaming. Rising above the trees she soared
gracefully upward screaming incessantly and seeming to exult in
her struggle with the furious March wind. She held some prey in her talons.
Three fine old Drake Goosanders & a pair of Whistlers were swimming well 
out on the flooded meadows.