Concord, Mass.
1896
April 17
[April 17, 1896]

  Fair with increasing cloudiness, the sun wholly obscured
by & after 3 P.M. Much cooler than yesterday. Ther. [Thermometer] 62 [degrees]
at 8 A.M. A rather heavy thunder shower late in the
afternoon with strong E. [East] wind.
  To Ball Hill [Ball's Hill] for the day paddling down & sailing
back. The thunder shower was coming up when I left
the cabin at 4 P.M. and on reaching Hunt's Pond
I was forced to stop and put up the canoe tent
or hood under which I sat, comfortably enough,
writing up my notes for over an hour. There was
a heavy flight of Rusty Blackbirds to-day and while
the shower was in progress a flock of upward of fifty
were flitting about over the meadow near me occasionally
rising & alighting in a maple to sing. I saw two
other flocks during the day, one of about 15 just
above Flint's Bridge, the other of 6 or 8 near the Holt.
At Beaver Dam Rapid, as I was on my way up
River, a flock of about thirty White-bellied Swallows
came pitching down from a great height & began
feeding close to the water. I think they were migrating
& were forced to descend by the shower. A pair
of Whistlers also passed over me at about this time.
In the morning while paddling down river I saw
in the distance a large, light-colored Duck swim
in under the bank near the tent. Keeping close
inshore I came so close to it that it was not
twelve feet from the bow of the canoe when it started out
from the bushes and flew off down river. It was a fine drake Gooseander.
It is seldom that one of these birds can be surprised
in such a place.