Concord, Mass.
1909.
April 5
  Clear & calm. A "weather breeder" day, warmest of spring thus far (65 degrees)
  Noted for first time this season: - Vesper Sparrow, male in full song, at Ritchie place.
Arrival of Grass Finch
   The farm Phoebee and the one at the Ritchie place were singing
in their usual stations this morning for the first time this year.
Farm & Ritchie place Phoebees arrive.
  The birds just mentioned were the only ones noted to-day
which seemed to have just reached here from further south. There
was no apparent increase in the numbers of Robins & Song Sparrows
and I begin to think that all our local representatives of both
species must have come allbeit they are still as comparatively
scarce. The Fox Sparrow and Juncos were appreciably less
numerous than they were yesterday. It is probably that nearly
half of them passed on northward last night and that the
flight is nearing its end. Both species sang freely to-day.
  The Fox Sparrows feeding on the seed bed under our
dining room windows invariably run into the neighboring cluster
of lilacs (a distance of only a few yards) when disturbed by distant
sights or sounds, all scurrying off at once as quickly as a band of
startled rats. But if we open the back door suddenly they take
wing. The Juncos always fly when alarmed not into the depths
of this thicket but up into the branches of the trees.
Fox Sparrows run to cover when alarmed by distant sights or sounds