2.

Concord, Mass.
1916
April 4
to
July 9

free from snow over which large and small brown Butterflies
were seen on wing later in the day. But our woodlands wore
a more wintry aspect; for there - especially under pines - the ground
was still covered to a depth of a foot or more in many places with
snow that had fallen weeks if not months before. Wood Frogs were already 
in full cry in the pond hole below the orchard while practically
all the birds to be expected at such a date had re occupied
their accustomed haunts and were filling the air with that
tender, plaintive, rather subdued music so characteristic of early
spring in Massachusetts and so very delightful to listen to anywhere.
No less grateful to my ears was the thrilling outcry of
Red-shouldered Hawks, coming every now and then from birds
soaring high over fields or woods.
  After this the on-coming of spring progressed more
steadily, if also slowly, than usual being neither checked
nor accelerated abruptly by alternating, unseasonable extremes