Concord Mass.
1896
April 23
[April 23, 1896]

  Clear with strong north wind which died away before sunset, the 
evening calm and very cool with a moon in the third quarter.
  To Ball's Hill at 9 a.m. sailing nearly the whole way
with close-hauled sheets.  For upwards of two weeks past I
have had to keep to the river but during the whole of
this time the lower half of Great Meadow has been flooded
the water running at nearly the same level.
  Before starting this morning I saw the pair of Nuthatches
in our orchard but they did not enter their hole. I
climbed the tree and examined the hole closely for the
first time. Inside there was a fair-sized chamber
on the bottom of which but little below the entrance was
a nest which in the dim light looked very like a
Bluebird's. It was empty and somewhat disarranged but
nevertheless deeply hollowed.
  Half-an-hour later I found one of the Nuthatches busily
engaged in collecting inner bark from the dead branch of an
ash and taking it into the hole in the elm at North
Bridge. I saw only one bird & could not make out 
its (sex) (the [female] of this pair has nearly as black a cap as
the [male]).
  I spent most of the day transplanting trees at Ball's Hill.
Later in the afternoon the Greebe [Grebe] which has haunted
the river area since April 11th [April 11, 1896] swam slowly past the cabin.
He goes to a certain place to fish for an hour or two
in the morning & evening. He is much tamer than he
was at first but he very seldom calls. He is in fully
adult plumage. What is he doing here? I cannot make 
out that he has a mate.
  I took tea at the cabin & had just finished when