Concord, Mass.
1902.
Oct. 8
  Brilliantly clear with fresh N.W. wind. Much cooler.
There has been no touch of frost as yet but much of the
foliage has colored and fallen & the grape leaves are withered
& look as if they had been frozen.
  As I was forcing my way through some dense oak
scrub this morning I started two Partridges from the
top of leafy young white oak about fifteen feet in height.
I suspect that they were getting acorns among the branches.
Just after breakfast I flushed two others on the south
side of Ball's Hill, one of them within three or four yards
of the stone wood shed.
Partridges eating acorns?
  I heard three Towhees at the farm and saw a
fourth at the east end of Ball's Hill.
Towhees.
  Small birds appeared to be scarce & I noted none
of any particular interest but Gilbert reports seeing
a Thrush which he took to be a Gray-cheek in Birch
Field and a Yellow Palm Warbler by the roadside
near Mrs. Ritchie's.
Small birds scarce.
Yellow Palm Warbler.
  At daybreak this morning a Black Duck was
quacking loudly & continuously near the cabin. About
sunrise I heard a confused medley of voices of
Rusty Blackbirds.
Black Ducks quacking near cabin.
  At nine o'clock last night a Great Blue Heron
made a great outcry in the marshes across the river
uttering a long succession of loud and deep squawks
wholly unlike the flight call (haink) & rather close
to the sounds made by a colony of breeding Night Herons
when disturbed. These cries I have often heard at
night at Lake Umbagog when I have thought an Owl
was harrying the Blue Herons.
Great Blue Heron makes loud outcry at night.
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