Concord, Mass.
1914.
March 17
to
May 31
(No 6)

May notes

  The river meadows remained flooded through April and May.
For the first time within my recollection they were comparatively &
indeed almost literally barren of bird life during both months. A
few Red-wings [Red-winged Blackbird] were scattered over them at sunsets of calm, warm
evenings in April, singing in the tops of flooded thickets and one or 
two Bitterns were heard pumping around their edges in early May
but after the middle of the latter month I failed to note either
species there. Driven from the ancestral haunts by the exceptionally
prolonged stage of high water the Red-wings [Red-winged Blackbird] resorted to breed to
various brook meadows lying well back from the river. I heard of
Bitterns breeding in similar meadows but did not personally verify such
report. Swamp Sparrows seemed to be entirely absent, even in the
bushy swamp behind Ball's Hill, and I failed to note a single
Rail of any kind. There were a few Black Ducks, Whistlers [Common Goldeneye] & Goosanders
on the flooded meadows early in the season & some Black Ducks 
in May. Gulls were scarce & I saw no Grebes or Fish Hawks.