2

Concord, Mass.
1915.
April, May
&
June.
(No 2)

Inconspicuous arrivals of local-breeding birds.
Scarcity or absence of Bluebirds, Veeries, Towhees, & Field Sparrows.

dates there were, of course, a few northern-breeding to be found
but their numbers were for the most part trifling. Our local-breeding
birds arrived similarly, a few at a time, some about the usual
dates, others decidedly later than usual. Even with these birds there
was at no time any general inrush of the numbers of any one
species. Hence they seemed uncommonly scarce at first although
finally repopulating their ancestral haunts in normal numbers for
the most part. Bluebirds, however, were scarcer than usual, Field Sparrows and Towhees noted only as migrants and
Wilson's Thrushes altogether absent from swampy coverts about the
Farm which they have never failed to inhabit in former years while
even at Ball's Hill there were only one or two breeding pairs.
Robins, on the other hand, were much more numerous than for
several years past and Maryland Yellow-throats exceptionally so.
Of Chimney Swifts we had comparatively few, of Rose-breasted
Grosbeaks only a single pair. Orioles seemed exceptionally common
when they first came, especially in Concord Village, but only one
pair nested in our elms at the Farm.

Pileated Woodpecker.
Barred Owl.

 I saw, as well as heard, a Pileated Woodpecker in swampy
woods near Pulpit Rock on April 6 [April 6, 1915]. He spent the entire day there
and made a prodigious racket, both by incessant calling and
hammering on resonant tree trunks, but I did not note him
afterwards. A Barred Owl, hooting there on the following day, was
afterwards heard at occasional intervals, for the last time on the evening
of June 10 [June 10, 1915] when his deep voice came from westward, beyond our Berry Pasture.

Rare north-bound migrants

  Of the rarer north-bound migrants I noted very few - a
Tennessee Warbler that remained for a full week (May 13-20) in or
near the oak grove behind our barn and sang there freely, a Lincoln's 
Finch singing in the Forsythia thicket in front of the house on
May 22 [May 22, 1915] and a White-crowned Sparrow seen on a stone wall
by the roadside near Biggi's, being the only ones worthy
of mention.