96
Lake Umbagog
Outlet & Leonard's Pond
1897
May 31
  A beautiful day, calm & overcast at first but afterwards
clear with gusty variable winds which seemed to temper 
what would otherwise have been an uncomfortably high
temperature.
  We had another exceptionally fine outburst of bird songs
early this morning and it lasted well into the forenoon.
At 8 A.M. I went with Jim to the Pileated Woodpecker's
nest. No bird appeared when we rapped the trunk but
hoping that one or the other of the pair might return
soon I set up my camera with the tripod firmly
hooked to an old root & a plate ready for exposure.
We waited nearly two hours without either seeing or 
hearing our Log Cocks. I begin to fear that something
has gone wrong with them. As I have already noted
only the male appeared during our last visit but
Watrous saw both birds on the 28th when the [female] after
being driven from the hole called up her mate
who entered it & took her place.
[margin] My second
visit to
nest of
Pileated
Woodpecker  [/margin]
  While waiting for the Log-cock I saw a number of
interesting birds in the stub forest about us. There were at least
two pairs of yellow-bellied Woodpeckers, two or three pairs of
Downy Woodpeckers, a pair of Bronzed Grackles, many Tree 
Swallows, Parula and Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Red-winged
Blackbird, several Song sparrows, and a Great Crested Flycatcher. 
The Song Sparrows here feed entirely on the floating logs
and other driftwood. They nest, no doubt, in old Woodpeckers' 
holes (I found a nest years ago in a noisy Woodpecker's
hole in Leonard's Pond). They are very much more numerous
than the Swamp Sparrows. Their songs are normal.
[margin]Characteristic
birds of
the stub
forests.[/margin]