1903.
May 7
  Forenoon clear & warm with light S.E. wind. Afternoon
cloudy with thunder rolling in the distance & a few drops
of rain.
  Starting at 8 A.M. I walked to Ball's Hill via
Prescott's Pines & Davis Hill returning by way of
Bensen's. The woods were alive with birds and I
noted several arrivals - a Chestnut-sided Warbler, singing
near the house, a Blackburnian Warbler in Prescott's Pines,
a Yellow Warbler opposite Davis's Hill, a silent Veery
at the south end of this Hill and a Bobolink
passing over the farm house about noon dropping a
brief snatch of his rollicking song as he sped on
his way northward.
Arrivals.
  Black-throated Green Warblers, Oven birds & Black & White
Creepers swarmed everywhere in suitable places.
  On reaching the Birch Field I heard the Cooper's Hawk
calling. Entering the pine woods I found Gilbert
climbing a big white pine to a nest from which he
had seen one of the Hawks fly a few moments before.
It was large, symmetrical, conspicuous & about fifty feet
from the ground. It proved to contain the full set of
five eggs. While Gilbert was in the tree both birds
appeared circling high in air the male following the female
so closely that his bill nearly touched the tip of her
tail. Thus they swing around and around many times
over the same spot one of them making at times a
murmuring whine very like that of a Musk Rat &
wholly different from the usual cackle. It seemed to
me that the male was toying with the female as if amorously
inclined. These Hawks soar with great ease & grace.