Concord, MA
1900
April 20
(Mon)
(The Farm)
  A pair of chickadees were excavating a nest in a birch
stump W. of the rock. Both birds working entering in 
hole alternately and carrying in chips of rotten wood thirty
or forty feet away before dropping them.
Chickadees 
excavating hole 
for nest.
  In the afternoon Purdie saw a male Marsh Hawk beating
the field below the orchard and while driving to Concord
Center I saw a great number of Robins, thirty or forty
he thinks, scattered about in pairs in fields & orchards.
Marsh Hawk
Robins
Blood root 
blooms
  Blood root bloomed today for the first time both
at the farm and at Ball's Hill.
  We saw the first mosquitoes at the cabin last
evening and they were actually troublesome at the
farm house this evening.
First mosquitos
  A Field Sparrow was singing in Bensen's field 
this morning and in his orchard we saw a pair of 
Bluebirds copulating.
Field Sparrow
Bluebirds copulating 
  A Meadow Lark seems to have settled for the
season in the fields near the West Bedford station
He has been singing there every morning when
the air is still.
Meadow Lark
  When we returned to the cabin just after dark
this evening, Hylas, Leopard Frogs and Toads were
making the meadows ring with their loud voices.
The sound was indeed almost deafening. There
must have been thousands of them.
Frogs & Toads 
in full cry
  About an hour after I went to bed I heard 
a Snipe drum several times + a Virginia Rail
give the cutta note for half-an-hour
or more.
Snipe drums