7
Cambridge & Belmont 
1897
March 11-23   
  Since March came in the weather has become milder & milder
from day to day and the snow has wasted rapidly under the
influence of the warm sun and one or two rains until now
(March 23) the ground is everywhere brown, the roads nearly dry,
and the grass is fast springing up in sheltered & sunny places.
" [March] 11   
  A bright sunny morning with chill N.W wind. Down around
Fresh Pond (9 - 9.30 a.m.). Saw two Bluebirds (one in full song)
and heard a Flicker "shouting" and the wild, plaintive song
of a Meadow Lark. One of the Bluebirds was in the fields
near the fort of Vassal's Lane; the other three birds were on
the Hittinger farm in Belmont. Looked and listened in vain
for Robins, Song Sparrows & Red-wings.
" [March] 18 
  Heard a Song Sparrow singing steadily this morning in the 
hemlock hedge on Mr. Samuel Scudder's place, Brattle St.
" [March] 19   
  Cloudy with light, cool S.W. winds. Walked (9-10 a.m.) to
Cambridge Cemetery. The Song Sparrow again singing in Mr Scudder's
hedge. On the Coolidge farm between the brook & the Cemetery I
heard at least five or six Song Sparrows and saw several others
flitting among bushes or into brush heaps. A Flicker "shouting"
in the oaks on the knoll & the flight call of a Bluebird passing
overhead, at least forty crows scattered about on the marshes
& in the oaks where three or four sat looking down
at me calmly as I passed directly beneath. English Sparrows
swarming everywhere and making my ears ache with
their infernal din, drowning the sweet voices of the 
Song Sparrows at times & exasperating me thereby.
The pretty cedar-topped knoll is fast melting away under 
the attacks of the [?] carts.