1902.
Aug.17
  Brilliantly clear and deliciously cool with fresh N.W. wind.
Ther 56 degrees at sunrise.
  Gilbert and I took electrics for Concord at 10 A.M. reaching
the cabin at 11.45 and walking directly to the farm where 
we dined and spent the night.
  A Robin sang for several minutes in Parker's orchard,
West Bedford, at 11.30. He was an old bird and in
nearly full voice. A Wood Pewee was singing listlessly
at Davis's Hill and a Flicker "shouting" feebly at the
farm in the late afternoon. No other birds were heard
singing even the Song Sparrows being silent.
Birds in song
  In the Barrett run I started a pair of Tanagers
from a high blueberry bush on the fruit of which they
were no doubt feeding although I did not actually see
them eat any of the berries as they flew before I
caught sight of them. The male was an adult bird
with black wings & tail and generally green plumage
diversified, however, in several places on the underparts
with patches of scarlet and orange.
Tanagers eating blueberries
  Five Barn Swallows were flying over the farm at evening.
Most of the Swifts seem to have already departed but
two appeared about the farm house just before sunset
& I heard young chattering & the rumbling of an old
bird's wings in the flue that leads up from the parlor.
We had a brisk hard wood fire in this fireplace for
several hours during two evenings & a morning only a
week ago. Evidently a wood fire does not injure
either old or young Chimney Swifts.
Swifts not injured by fire in nesting flues.
  Cicadas are scarce, grasshoppers & crickets not numerous.
Acanthus nivaeus is not in really full "voice" as yet.
Insect life.
90