Lake Umbagog.
Cambridge River Marshes
1896
Aug. 12
  Another clear & intensely hot day but with a refreshing
N.W. breeze in the afternoon.
  I spent the forenoon in the house writing and sailed
across to Upton in the afternoon. On the way I saw
nothing of any interest. Near the Mill the Goldfinch was
again singing on the same cherry and a dozen Purple Martins
were flying about alighting on the tall dead pine by the
landing.
  I started back a little before sunset and after landing and
filling a bottle at Peaslee's spring paddled out to the mouth
of the river & ate my supper there sitting in the canoe which
I moored on the edge of a bed of bullrushes. Despite the
gradual accumulation of a swarm of mosquitoes it was a very pleasant
& interesting half-hour while the twilight fell and gradually deepened
into night. A Whistler was playing about on the calm water
within 100 yards or less swimming very rapidly to & fro in zig-zag
lines with outstretched head & neck apparently gathering food from
the surface and acting very like a Phalarope. (He did not once dive)
A pair of Black Ducks came flying past quacking noisily &
finally alighting with loud splashing within the gloom of the
southern shore. Great Blue Herons sailed across the afterglow in the west
barking hoarsely & a Night Heron quawked repeatedly in
the direction of B. Point. High in air a Night hawk wandered
aimlessly. The sweet mellow calls of Spotted Sandpipers stole
over the water from distant shores. As it grew darker
a Great Horned Owl began hooting on the point to the
eastward of the Brown clearing. Later still I heard a
Warbler lisping in the star-lit sky. This is the first
night migrant I have noted here this month.
[margin]Bird life
of the
Cambridge River
Marshes[/margin]
[margin[Peculiar
behavior of a 
Whistler[/margin]