1902.
May 2
(No 2)
  The Ball's Hill Phoebees have built a nest in
a tray made of a coverless box which I put up
for them in the stone horse-shed. Gilbert tells me
that they began this nest on April 18th. It looked
finished to-day but the bird was not sitting. The 
pair at the farm have a nest under the eaves
of the barn where they built last year. They seem
to have abandoned the barn cellar perhaps because there
are so many rats there. There is a third pair at
Bensen's shed (where they usually nest on the outside
of the high foundation wall) and a fourth at my
stone boat house across the river where they began a
nest about a week ago on the deck of a canoe that
is slung to one of the beams. This nest is still
unfinished & I fear they have deserted it.
Phoebe
  Our Ball's Hill bird sings only in the early
morning now. Last evening and again at noon
to-day I heard him utter many times in
succession a low, exquisitely plaintive and tender
pit-e, apparently a note of endearment to his mate
(who was with him on both occasions) and wholly
new to me.
  The air rings and pulsates this evening with the
peeping of hundreds of Hylas and the trilling of
dozens of Toads but the Leopard Frogs are
much less noisy than they were last night.
  I heard a Tree Toad in the old orchard at
the farm this morning.
Frogs & Toads
  One of the apple trees at the farm opened a few of its
blossoms to-day - a very early date.
First apple blossoms
57