Concord, Mass.
1902.
April 8
  Cloudy with violent and piercingly cold N.E. wind
which brought heavy rain in the afternoon & evening.
  We are having our March in April this year.
It would be difficult to imagine a more gloomy
and forbidding day than this has been and rarely have
I known one where the woods and fields seemed more
barren of animal life. I cannot understand where the
birds conceal themselves at such times. I do not think
I saw and heard more than a dozen in all to-day
although I was in the woods and openings from early
morning to late afternoon. At daybreak the first
bird to sing was a Robin followed, some fifteen
minutes later, by a Phoebe. A Fox Sparrow sang
once still later. After breakfast I heard a Red-wing 
and at about ten o'clock the phoebe note of a
Chickadee. These were actually all the birds I heard
during the entire day besides a few Crows cawing,
some Jays screaming and a Golden-crest zee-ing.
I saw one Song Sparrow, a Bluebird and a few Robins.
One might easily get a longer list of species during
a fine day in mid-winter.
  I cannot understand where the White-bellied
Swallows are keeping themselves. During cold, cloudy
easterly weather they usually congregate under
the lee of Ball's Hill but there were none there
either yesterday or to-day. Perhaps only a very
few have come as yet.
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