Penobscot Bay, Maine.
1896
June 23
(No 2)
(Sheep Island) Geothlypis trichas 1 *; Melospiza fasciata literally dozen (singing
& carrying about food in their bills, chirping, the commonest birds of the island);
Zonotrichia albicollis 1 *, Empidonax trailli alnorum 3, one pair with nest
& 4 fresh eggs in dense thicket of raspberry bushes; Corvus americanus, 2,
Larus smithsonianus, several flying close along the shores.
I took photographs of the Flycatcher's nest & one looking out of
the little cove where we landed. Then we went to
  Mark Island. About 6 acres of open pasture with one tall black
spruce and a group of low, spreading spruces & balsams at one
end, the open ground covered with short, wiry grasses, thickets of
wild gooseberry bushes and beds of the rhubarb like plant. Conary
had heard that a pair of Eiders were frequenting the ledges about
this island but we saw nothing of them. We found only:
Ammodramus savanna [male] [female] with brood of young on wing; Melospiza fasciata
2, Corvus americanus 2 old birds & their young on wing. I found
an old nest built of grass by the side of a rock which looked like
a Herring Gulls & which contained some of the feathers of this Gull.
  After supper I went up into the woods behind the house and lying
down on a ledge covered with dry elastic reindeer moss remained
motionless until dark. Robins & Swainson's Thrushes were singing all
about me. The air was cool with a fresh, salt trace of the sea.
After it had become nearly dark some bird or mammal in the woods
near me gave a single, loud quawk very like that of a Night Heron.
There are only a very few mosquitoes, still fewer midges & no black flies in these woods.
  Last evening The Swainson's Thrushes ceased singing first, our single
Hermit about two minutes after the last Swainson's while a Robin
sang five minutes later than the Hermit & other Robins called
later still. To night the Robins closed the evening bird concert.
The Hermit did not sing at all.