Concord, Mass.
1896
April 19
[April 19, 1896]

  After a warm, still night (I doubt if the thermometer
fell much below 70 [degrees]) we had a clear, still and very
warm morning but by noon clouds began gathering
in the west and in the late afternoon & evening came
a perfect procession of thunder showers, three of which
gave us a good deal of rain which was badly needed.
It was a singular day with no color in the light,
no life in the sultry air, and for long periods, especially
in the early afternoon with literally no sounds from
either animate or inanimate nature. Sometimes for half-
an-hour or more we did not hear so much as a
Red-wing [Red-winged Blackbird] or Song Sparrow or even a Frog.
  At day-break and well into the forenoon birds sang
freely enough but there did not seem to be many of
them. The only arrival noted was a Mniotilta varia
which sang a dozen times or more near the cabin
a little after sunrise. It was with a little flock of
Yellow Palm Warblers.
  In the forenoon we rambled about the woods & fields
going to Davis's Hill in one direction & to Holden's Hill
in the other. We heard two Tree Sparrows singing. One
of them was in some bushes near Bensen's. A Chippy
was singing literally in the same bush and a
Field Sparrow scarce twenty yards away. Then we
heard the three Spizellas together.
  At evening we sat down again on the knoll at
Bensen's landing. There were two Bitterns again to-night
although we heard but one this morning. The rain from
the first shower this evening seemed to have waked up
all the Leopard Frogs, Toads & Hylas in the whole
region. Such an uproar over the Great Meadows. Purdie
compared it to the clatter of a great mill.