Lake Umbagog.
Lakeside.
1896
Aug 17-23
(no 4)

By far the most interesting as well as puzzling experience
of the present month has been that with the Swallows.
On the 11th I recorded at some length my observations up
to that date and noted the apparent disappearance on the
12th (or rather on the evening of the 11th) of the great flock
(1200 or more birds) that had been haunting the Lakeside clearing.
On the 12th & 13th the total number left remained at about
100. On the 14th it increased to about 200 birds of which
the majority, for the first time, were Barn Swallows. On the 15th
& 16th the Eave Swallows increased from about 50 to100 to 150
birds the respective numbers of the other species remaining
about the same. During the next four days the fluctuations
in the total number of birds although appreciable were not
considerable but there seemed to be a falling off in the number
of Barn & Eave Swallows and an increase of White-bellies.
On the evening of the 21st at a later hour than I have
seen Swallows flying about before this month and in fact
when it was beginning to be dark in the hollows I was
walking up to the hotel from the landing when a flock
of about 200 birds passed over the field at a height
of about 200 feet flying towards the south. They were
"bunched" almost as closely as Blackbirds & in this
order kept steadily on each bird flying in an almost
absolutely straight course. I watched them with my glass
until they were nearly lost to sight against the wooded
slopes of the mountains when at the very last moment
they began to waver in this flight &, as I thought but
could not see distinctly, to scatter & turn back. Had it
not been for this final glympse[sic] I should have felt
sure that at last I had seen a flock of Swallows really start
on migration. As it was I hardly know what to think.
[margin]Mysterious
movements &
fluctuations
in the number
of the Swallows[/margin]