1906
April 28
  Brilliantly clear with strong, cool N.W. wind.
  Heard a Brown Thrasher in full song yesterday morning
in the Barrett Run and a Towhee about six o'clock this morning
in the forsythia bush in front of the farm house (where he
spent most of the day)
Arrivals
  Although I listened many times through the day beneath 
the old elm at the east end of the shed I heard nothing of
the Downy Woodpeckers until about sunset when one of the
birds was tapping persistently within the nest. A few moments
later a Downy came from the orchard and entered a rather
large ragged hole in a fork of the main stem which contains
the nest. The two holes are only a few feet apart. The tapping
continued in the nest hole which is doubtless only a roosting place.
  At three o'clock this afternoon one of the Downy Woodpeckers
was at work in the nest. I watched the hole until four
o'clock. During this period the tapping was practically incessant
excepting when the bird, which proved to be a male, appeared
at the entrance and began throwing out chips. This he did at
irregular intervals, averaging about five minutes. He brought the
chips in his mouth, five or six at once, and ejected them
by a sharp toss of his head. Once he brought twelve mouthfuls
in succession but as a rule he brought not more than five or
six & on one occasion but two. I think he backed down
for each successive load but after discharging the last load
he invariably came out of the hole and clung beneath it
for a moment before entering it again, head foremost,
of course. He had to struggle a little to get in for the
hole is small. I saw the first Downy repeatedly in an
elm nearby. She was idling about & basking in the sun.