Lake Umbagog.
1896
May 30
(no 3)
[May 30, 1896]

Leonards Pond
Photographing nests of the Water Thrush.

wings, sometimes turning back & gliding past me or just under the
nest, making no sound nor tilting while behaving thus but presently flying
up to some branch or root to tilt and chirp with her mate. Both
birds were very large & very yellow beneath. This was the nest
with 5 eggs. The bank was of clean, fresh sandy loam with no
vegetation. The nest was very bulky & ostensibly composed wholly
of dead leaves.

  The other nest & its owner were wholly different. The nest was
in the open, vertical face of a small & very old earth bank (root
bank I should have said) which was densely covered with mosses
and various small plants & grasses. The entrance to the nest was
a sort of slit, narrow vertically but wide horizontally. The bird
when started merely dropped to the ground and ran
quickly off under some fallen brush and then flying
up to a low branch or root tilted and watched me in silence &
apparently without apprehension. She did not even chirp and during
the hour or more that I was busy with her nest her mate sang
in blissful ignorance of his partner's danger fifty or one hundred
yards away. If I stood quietly for a minute or two the [female] would
alight at the base of the bank and running quickly up its slightly
sloping face would peep in for a moment and then entering settle down
to her task first arranging the eggs beneath her by moving them with
her legs or feet swaying her body from side to side the while. She did
not seem to mind or notice my camera when it was set
up within a yard of her. A sensible, placid little creature very
unlike the other above described.

  I also photographed the White-throat's [White-throated Sparrow] nest, getting a fine negative.

Great Crested Flycatcher.

  Heard a Great crested Flycatcher in the stubs on the island.