84
Concord, Mass.
1898
May 7 
(No 4)
of several yards. But after I had followed it to
its termination and was looking ahead for further
clues my eyes were suddenly arrested by a yellowish
patch on the end of a fallen trunk that was
raised four or five feet about the ground and
to my great delight I found that it was one
of the young Owls. He was crouching so very flat &
he lay so still as I approached that I feared at
first that he was dead but he proved to be
all right and I spent the next half hour
photographing him, exposing three plates in all. I
did not succeed in finding the other young bird
and I think it probable that he has been
carried off by either a Dog or a Fox but of course
he may have been hidden somewhere in the
neighbourhood and the trail of down may have
had no real meaning for the wind may have blown
it into the tops of the bushes. The old Owl kept
hooting all the time I was near the young bird
but she did not once change her position or
show herself.
  Three Bitterns were pumping this morning, two
on the Great Meadow, the third in the 
Swamp behind Ball's Hill where I think
there is likely to be a nest a little later.
  Gilbert paddled up to Concord this morning
seeing two Green Herons and seven Spotted
Sandpipers.