1

Concord, Mass.
1915.
April, May
&
June.

Spring notes
Slow oncoming of spring & summer.
Belated frost
Last snowfall.
Advance of vegetation
Scarcity of north-bound migrants.

  I went to Concord for the first time this year on March 31 [March 31, 1915]
and remained there continuously - excepting for an occasional day
spent in Cambridge or Boston - up to June 3 [June 3, 1915], living altogether
at the Farm and seldom even visiting Ball's Hill. After this I
was there again June 10-13 and 21-26. Constantly out of
doors at most hours of daylight I was enabled to keep a
rather close watch on the bird and other animal life in fields
orchards and woodland near our house despite the fact that
my chief attention had to be given to farm work and
gardening or to supervising men engaged in it. There were
always frequent opportunities for taking short walks into the woods,
however, especially in late afternoon when I rarely failed to have
a quiet stroll, usually either to Birch Field or through the Berry
Pasture, with "Tim", the keen little Irish Terrier, as my sole companion.
It was delightful to thus have opportunity for noting and enjoying
the oncoming of spring and early summer - this year more gradual
and even than usual because of the general absence of extreme
fluctuations of temperature. We had, it is true, a belated and very heavy
frost on the night of May 26-27 when water froze in panes, to the thickness
of window glass, but there were no exceptionally warm days before June
or, indeed, July - and the nights were uniformly cool while the
weather was almost continuously fine with little or no rainfall through
April and May and no snowfall whatever save on April 3 [April 3, 1915], when the
ground was covered briefly to a depth of some ten inches with heavy
slushy snow. Because of these conditions vegetation advanced slowly
and evenly and the blooming period of most spring flowers was
unusually protracted. Rarely if ever before have I known migrating
birds bound further north so little in evidence during these months.
In April there was literally no well-marked flight except of Juncos
on the 7th [April 7, 1915] and 23rd [April 23, 1915] while the only May flight of Warblers worth
mentioning occurred on the 22nd [May 22, 1915] of that month. On various other