1902.
May 12
(No 2)
  The apple orchard at the farm was at the height
of its glory yesterday. This morning the blossoms
had lost something of their fresh beauty & many of
the petals were falling - like big snow flakes. There
were Warblers there both days but no so many as
I have seen in the former years - several Usnea Warblers,
a Golden-wing (yesterday), one or two Nashvilles &
a Yellow Warbler being the full list. There were
also Least Flycatchers & Chippies, the latter hopping
about under bowers of snowy blossoms at the tips
of the branches apparently doing nothing but luxuriate
the beauty of their surroundings. Most fitting &
attractive of all the sounds of the old orchard was
that of the droning of the innumerable bees.
  At about 8 A.M. as Bowditch, Nichols & I were
standing near the cabin we heard a sound which
we at first mistook for that of a Pigeon's wings.
The next instant a bird which looked, through the
trees, like a whitish Pigeon, appeared over the crest
of Ball's Hill. It proved, however, to be a male Marsh Hawk.
He was flying in an unusual manner and continued to
do so until he had passed beyond our sight over the
Great Meadows. Passing an almost perfectly direct course
and beating his wings with a continuous loose, easy Gull-
like motion, never once scaling or inclining to either
side he would nevertheless dip downward on a rather
long & gentle decline every few hundred or so, at the beginning of each
sweep turning over on one side, and at its termination
on the other, without for an instant ceasing flapping
however. At each descent he made the sound already
75