189
From Bethel to Lakeside.
1898.
August 22
  A sunny, very warm and sultry day with dense, smoky
haze.
  Bobolinks were migrating in numbers this morning. I
heard them at frequent intervals as I sat on the piazza
and once I saw two flying together rather high.
[margin]Bobolinks 
migrating in
numbers[/margin]
  At noon Gilbert and I started for the Lake in Davis's Stage.
The roads were in good condition and we had a very
pleasant and interesting drive. Golden rod, asters and
Eupatorium were in full bloom everywhere along the
roadsides. The trees for the most part were as green as
in midsummer but I noticed a few rock maples that
had begun to turn yellowish. For the entire distance the
country is unchanged since last year. In fact scarce a
tree was missing. Thank heaven the march of modern
"improvement" has not touched this region as yet.
  We saw a great many birds, Song sparrows & White-throats
in the wayside thickets; Grass Finches and Savanna Sparrows
in the grassy fields; clouds of Chipping Sparrows rising from
weedy places as the stage rattled by; a Wood Pewee in an
apple orchard; two families of Bluebirds, one of three the other
of four birds, in Newry; several small parties of Kingbirds;
three Robins; several Cedar birds; one flock of eight, another
of twelve, Night hawks zig-zagging about, feeding, over the
meadow flat in Grafton; a flock of fully fifty Eave Swallows
over the same meadow; Barn Swallows everywhere in small
parties or singly & one pair feeding young still in the nest;
eight or ten Crows; a few Chimney Swifts; a Hummingbird;
and last but not least a fine female Duck Hawk
circling over the woods about a mile north of Grafton Notch.
Reached Lakeside at about seven o'clock.
[margin]Small birds[/margin]
[margin]Night Hawks
Eave Swallows[/margin]
[margin]Duck Hawk[/margin]