Concord, Mass.
1900
April 17      
(No. 3)
  I noticed this afternoon that on the meadow banks
along the river the "blue joint" (Phaleris) had already
sent numerous slender, tender-green shoots above the
surface of the shallow water but the borders of the
meadows are as brown & lifeless looking as in late
December.
(Ball's Hill)
"Blue joint" grass
appears
  At frequent intervals through the day I heard
in the cluster of pines on the West Bedford side
of the river a Crow which cawed exactly like
a Fish Crow. A Crow with a similar voice &
probably the same bird has bred in these trees
for three or four years past. For aught I know
the bird may really be a Fish Crow but he does
not look different from the other Crows of this
region & the chances are, of course, that he is
a true americanus with an abnormal caw (or ca)
which he may have acquired by consorting with
Fish Crows in the south. So far s I can remember
I have never heard him here in autumn.
  I did hear Geese this afternoon. At least at about
the time when I thought I did Gilbert & Pat, while at
the Manse, saw three flocks containing respectively 65,
22 & 18 birds flying apart from, but within one hundred
yards of, one another. They were heading S. at first &
then bore off to the E. & disappeared in the mist in
the distance of Great Meadow.
Wild Geese
  While P. & I were standing near the cabin after tea
a Snipe drummed thrice, the last time directly overhead.
Snipe drum
our cabin