1881. 
General observations. 
Mains (Lake Umbagog). 
(May 11) 
'§XG ep t Pror^ne- o 
Reaching the T^ake I found the vege Nation but little 
ahead of that in the fetch, and only the mountain ashes 
and poplhrs sho\Ying any traces of green; nevertheless ■ 
the most of the birds had arrived and v/ere in full song. 
I hoard dozens of Turdus swai nsoni , n..mb:jis of Dendrooea 
blackbu rniao, D . eo ron ata, D. viron s , P anola arner .c ana , 
Siu rus naevius , S eto n haga rutici lla, Anor thu r a hiemalis , 
Sphyrapicus varius , also one De- droeca maculosa . 
Alva Goolidgo tells m.^ that tlio birds arrived in bulk 
yesterday; and that he heard ¥/at~r Thrushes t?ion. The 
thermometer to-day reached 80° 
(t 
15. 
On the 2d of May, a little over a v/eek before my 
arrival, there \Yas good sleighing hero and the snow cov¬ 
ered the fields nearly to the fence rails; the follow¬ 
ing v/eek was very warm and the s- ow arnl ice rapidly dis¬ 
appeared. The groat rush of Warblers and other late 
migrants came the 10th and 11th Alva Gooltdge tells me. 
Its seems remarka>)le that su.ch birds as the Olive-sided 
Flycatcher, Highthawk, and the various Warblers should 
be hero even now. Alva heard the first Woodcock sing 
about the 5th, and thinks they arrived tlien. Dana 
Brooks tells me that Richardson Lake opened on the 13th, 
but froze completely ov-yr ar^ain on the night of the Id-th, 
a thing never known to Iiappon before. I noticed yester¬ 
day that the poplars are leafing out but that all the 
other trees are as yet perfectly bare, although at a dis¬ 
tance the hardv/oods present a gauzy appearance due to 
their thickening buds and blossoms which tint their 
crests w-i. th dolicato smoke-gray, salmon and f'ri’ier col¬ 
ors , 
The result of the above conditions is that oa.rly 
breeding birds are late witii thoir nests while the mi- 
grant^j have followed up tlie warm wave closely, are usu— 
alljr early.. 
(S 
23. 
The hard—woods ^ re now qua to green o veryv/iiere. 
The moose \/ood is in blossom, the sugar pear at its full¬ 
est per 
?/ith th 
triiium 
trees. 
lection oi bloom. The floating isleind is snowy 
e bells of the Cassa.idra, and both species of 
are scatt.ei’ed in profusion beneath the forest 
The Canada plums are on the point of blossoming. 
A f-ev/ intorostirig changes in tlio bird fa na since 
last year. I Iiave seen only a single Dendroeea easta noa 
and but one Hylo tomus , Juneo hio 1 a 1 is is './oil nigh oxti*’.c 
all tlio people are liow commenting‘on this latter fact. 
The floating IsIeukIs ixi Bryant’s Pond v/ore purple 
v/ith the blossoms of the Ganada Roddra,. which formed 
perfect masses of solid color-. 
't* 
