Concord, Mass.
1906.
Nov. 27
  Cloudy with a fine drizzle of rain. Forenoon calm, a raw
N.E. wind in afternoon.
  To Concord by 8.34 A.M. train. Drove directly to the farm
and spent most of the day in the house but got into the
woods twice. About noon I went down into the Barrett Run
where I found a little flock of wintering birds comprising 6 Chickadees,
a Brown Creeper, 2 Golden-Crests and two White breasted Nuthatches.
Another such apparently different flock, which I met with in the
afternoon in Pulpit Rock woods, contained 4 or 5 Chickadees, 2 Golden-crests
and a single White breasted Nuthatch. Still another flock composed
wholly of Chickadees frequented the trees about the house during most
of the day. Soon after dinner I heard near the house a Flicker
calling and saw a flock of 4 Lesser Redpolls flying over the
field towards the Barrett Run uttering their flight calls.
  During the afternoon walk I started 4 Partridges together in
the woods near the Barrett spring and a single bird from some
brush on the hillside just below the old barn. This is a greater
than I often (if ever) saw in a day last October &
I think that there must have been a decided increase in
the numbers of the birds in our woods since I left Concord.
  When I reached the farm this morning I found a dozen
or more English sparrows collected in the big forsythia bush
in front of the house. These birds have increased very considerably
in this neighbourhood during the past year probably because
of the fact that I began raising chickens last spring and
have now a flock of fifty or more which are fed out of doors.
  As I was returning from the Ritchie place this noon a
Short-tailed Shrew attempted to cross the public road about 20 feet
in advance of me. On reaching the middle of the road it stopped
& then ran swiftly back into the bushes. Apparently it saw me despite
its almost microscopic eyes. I was making almost no noise at the time.