9
1898
March 12
Cambridge & vicinity
  The last week of February was mild with cloudy
skies and a good deal of rain; the first ten days
of March have been sunny and warm with almost
no wind and on several days literally none from
morning to night. The thermometer has gone almost
or quite to 60[degrees] on several occasions but the ground
has frozen slightly at night up to March 8th since
when there has been no frost. Under the influence
of these conditions the immense body of snow that
fell during the first half of February has wasted
steadily but at no time very rapidly. A week ago
the ground was bare on southern exposures & in
many places in the open fields. Now there is no
snow left excepting on northern slopes, behind walls &
under evergreens. The roads are perfectly dry, there
is almost no frost in the ground and the grass
is uniformly green in sheltered, sunny spots and in
springy runs in the fields.
[margin]The change
from winter
to early
spring[/margin]
  The first Crocus bloomed in front of the Museum on
the 7th, the first Snow-drop on the 10th.
[margin]First Crocus[/margin]
  Three Bluebirds were seen in Weston, Feb. 24, and
two male Redwings at the Glacialis, on the 25th.
During the first week of March the only arrivals appear
to have been Purple Finches which appeared in our
garden on the 1st and have been there every day since
in numbers varying from one or two to five or six.
On March 9th Lothrop saw a flock of eight or ten
Redwings at the Glacialis and a friend of his saw
a pair of Black Ducks flying over the same place on
the evening of the 11th.
[margin]Bird
arrivals[/margin]