Bethel, Maine
1909
June1 [June 1, 1909]
  Brilliantly clear with fresh W. wind. Cool at morning
and evening, warm through middle of day.
  When I left Cambridge this morning the apple orchards
had shed their last blossoms and nearly all of our trees, both
cultivated and forest, were in practically full leaf. From
Portsmouth to Mechanic's Falls the apple trees were still in
bloom but beyond Bryant's Pond very few of the fruit buds
had fully opened. The latter conditions obtained at Bethel
where the vegetation was at least ten days behind that
at Cambridge. The elms in the town cast scarcely any
shade but some of the maples were in half leaf. The woods
were veiled in young foliage of delicate & varied tints of
green, salmon and coppery red.
  There were numbers of Warblers singing in the orchards
in the village many of them north bound migrants, no doubt,
although I noted no species which does not breed there
except the black-poll. The singing at evening was very
fine with Robins and Orioles near at hand and Vireos
and Peabody birds in the distance along the wood edges.
  I heard a House Wren near the library where one sang
last summer.
  There was a Yellow Warbler singing below the hotel
in Skunk Hollow.
  A Cat bird sang near the hotel and I heard another
singing in Dr. Gehring's shrubbery.
  Margaret Herrick a bright girl of 13 years of age tells me
that Mrs. Rowe has formed a bird class in the village. On its
outskirts, in a sandy field to the eastward of the group of pitch pines
the members of this class were shown a Prairie Horned Lark last
Saturday, May 29th. It was so tame they got within a few feet of
it. Margaret saw it and seems certain of its identity. It had been seen
there before for a week or more.
Prairie Horned Lark.