Concord, Mass.
1896
November 1
  Cloudy, calm and warm - a soft gray day, very restful
to the eyes and senses.
  I spent the forenoon in the burnt woods near
Goose Pond having gone there with a wood chopper who
wishes to cut off the trees this winter. Ever since the
fire I have thought, at odd times, of the stories that I
have heard of Woodpeckers congregating in large numbers in
similar extensive tracts of charred forest. Evidently these
woods will bear watching for some of the same species such
as the Banded & Arctic three-toes for I saw them to-day
then Hairy and the same number of Downy Woodpeckers,
certainly an unusually large representation especially for
the first-named species. There were also many Chickadees,
a White-bellied Nuthatch, a Brown Creeper, and, I think a
Flicker. In some bushes near the roadside I heard Fox
Sparrows lisping and one of them sang gloriously a
dozen times or more in quick succession. Altogether for
the time & place there were very many birds.
" [November] 2
  Clear and warm with strong N.W. wind. For more than
a week we have had no frost and many of the days
have been uncomfortably warm in the sun.
  I spent the forenoon at Ball's Hill sailing down
and paddling back. Saw no birds of any especial interest.
On the way up river I ran the canoe on a sunken
snag where it hung poised and in imminent danger
of upsetting for more than half-an-hour before I finally
pushed it off.
  Later in the afternoon I went to Cambridge.