269
Concord, Mass.
1898.
October 8
  Heavy rain last night followed by cloudy and showery 
weather to-day the sky clearing at sunset.
 To Ball's hill as usual. Took a long walk 
in the woods in the forenoon. Saw a Yellow Palm
Warbler in the swamp behind the hill. A Greater Yellow-legs
flying about over the marshes whistling. Birtwell
came to see me in the afternoon. He and Gilbert says they
saw three Fox sparrows on the W. Bedford Shore but I doubt it. 
" [October] 9  
  Clear and cool with brilliant light & strong N.W. wind.
  Drove to the Barrett farm in the forenoon. Saw
a Phoebe flitting about the old barn cellar in
which, on the decaying beams, are literally dozens of 
the nests of this Flycatcher.
[margin]Phoebe revisits a
nesting haunt[/margin]
  At sunset I walked across Red Bridge to the
club boathouse. Song sparrows were singing almost
as numerously and freely as in spring. From every
direction over the meadows their sweet notes came
to delight my ears. At least two and I think
three that I heard were old birds whose voices
sounded as fresh or finer as at the height of
the breeding season. I also heard a great number
of them last evening as I was paddling up the
river but on that occasion most of them seemed
to be young birds. I do not understand why
the Song Sparrows are singing so much more than
usual this October. I have certainly never heard
anything like it in former years.
[margin]Song sparrows
in full song[/margin]