56
Lake Umbagog.
1897
May 17
  Clear, neither cool nor warm, wind light from W. altogether
as perfect a May day as could be imagined.
  Shortly after 6 a.m. I went with Watrous & Gilbert
and we spent some three hours searching for Woodcocks' nests
without success although we flushed three male birds one below
and another above the road on the eastern edge of Lakeside
clearing, the third on the upper edge of the Brown clearing.
[margin]Fruitless search
for
nests of the
Woodcock[/margin]
  In the latter I found a Hermit Thrush's nest with 4 eggs
flushing the bird almost under foot by striking with my
beating stick the stem of the little fir (36 in. high) under
which the nest was revealed. This nest was in the same
willow thicket where we found our first Hermit's nest last
year and not over 20 yds. from the site of the latter.
A [male], the only one heard to-day, was singing about 200 yds. off.
[margin]Nest of
Hermit Thrush[/margin]
  Small birds were either very scarce or very silent, doubtless
the former for the morning was still, the sun bright &
every condition right for free singing. Probably the bulk
of the great flight which came on the 12th has passed over
& no second arrival of any number of immigrants has yet come.
[margin]Small 
birds scarce[/margin]
  The Brown Thrasher sang again this morning on the shore
at the base of B. Point. I could hear him faintly but
distinctly from the hill-top behind Lakeside, a distance of
fully half-a-mile.
[margin]Brown
Thrasher[/margin]
  During the day we saw from the boat a fine adult
Bald Eagle, several Fish Hawks and a pair or two
each of Black and Whistler Ducks. Also a Herring Gull.
[margin]Eagle, Osprey
Ducks, Gulls[/margin]