57
Lake Umbagog.
1897
May 17
(No 2)
  Shortly after sunset Watrous & I paddled across the Lake
to the Sargent farm. On the way we started four Ducks
which were swimming together off Birch Point several
hundred yards from shore. I took them to be Greater Scaups
but was unable to identify them certainly. We also saw
a Great Blue Heron flying over high in air.
  Landing at the head of the cove we walked up past
the deserted house into the pasture where we found
two Woodcock in full song. They were exactly in the
same places respectively where the two birds sang last
year. Furthermore every one of the peeping & singing stations
near Lakeside occupied last year has its bird this
season. What does it mean? Either the birds are the
same individuals or the particular spots of turf over which
they run and peep every evening have certain attractions
obvious to all their tribe. It can scarcely be mere
coincidence for the pastures are all large and two of
them contain twenty or thirty acres each while the particular
spots which the birds use do not seem to differ in any
way from the rest of these open, turfy pasturelands.
If the birds are really the same it is a miracle that
so many could have escaped the dangers of the journey
southward last autumn & the return this spring. Thus far
we have found five singers here three east of Lakeside, two
to the westward in the Sargent opening.
  During at least two nights the past week the Woodcock
nearest Lakeside sang steadily up to 10 P.M. & no doubt
much later. The moon was nearly full. The first night
was clear, the second rainy but with the moon breaking
through the clouds at short intervals.
[margin]Woodcock[/margin]