Walter Deane papers

52 Grindstone Neck, Winter Harbor, Me. 1901 July 25 (2)

beautiful wood for about a mile and a half discussing plants & birds. Phegopteris dryopteris was abundant. The carriages met us at the end of the wood and I drove back with Miss Moore & Miss Houston. We soon drove up to the Lookout where there is a glorious view of the Neck and Harbor on either side. The whole trip was very lovely. We got back to dinner.

Mrs. Dixon called in the evening with a report of my Talk for the Bar Harbor paper. I walked home with her and sat for some time in the house. I called at the Inn on Mr. & Mrs. Raymond who came in the cars here with us. They live in New York City.

53

[attached painting of the heads of three young women] M. {Margaretta} Bonsall Taylor —

Hearing about the Birds July 25, 1901.

To Mr. Deane in memory of a very pleasant morning.

54

Yourself and friends are cordially invited to attend the first meeting of the Thursday Morning Club on July 25th at Eleven O'Clock upon which occasion Mr. Walter Deane will speak — his subject being The Birds of Grindstone —

Harbor View July 21st

[Invitation issued by Mrs. Wm. Duff for a piazza talk in the summer of 1901.]

51 Grindstone Neck, Winter Harbor, Me. 1901 July 25

A glorious clear bracing day, with some haze in the afternoon. The mercury went over to 50 degrees last night. 59 degrees, 8.30 A.M.; 66 degrees, 2 P.M., 62 degrees, 7 P.M., 58 degrees, 10 P.M.

My Bird Talk came off this morning at 11 o'clock on the beautiful north piazza of Mrs. Duff. All called it a great success. Over sixty were present including ladies and gentlemen and a number of children. I was told that children had never attented these lectures before and that from fifteen to twenty five or thirty was the usual number present. I had 45 skins that I brought up from the Museum (W.B.'s) representing the principal birds of my talk. I was very pleasantly introduced by Mrs. Duff and I talked informally for an hour and a half, using the specimens for illustrations. I thoroughly enjoyed it all myself, and when I finished the people clustered about me asking questions. I showed the Rhode Island Tern card and [Cebapmaus?] colored pictures of Birds and Mrs. Eckstorm's Bird Book.

Before the talk Mrs. Duff showed me her "Canon" a strip of ground covered with a natural growth of trees between the driveway & road, about 15 yards wide running to a point at each end. It is in a depression and is filled with native growth largely introduced by Mrs. Duff. It is a beautiful spot of nature.

This afternoon I drove with Mrs. Duff and May along the road towards Gouldsboro. Miss Moore Miss Houston & Miss Bliss followed in another carriage. We got out at a wood and walked through a

50 Grindstone Neck, Winter Harbor, Me. 1901 July 24 (2)

Returning home, I dressed and went to lunch with L. & M. at Mrs. J.B. Taylor's. Mrs. Dixon was there and we had a very bright time. It began to rain as we returned home.

I have spent the rest of the afternoon writing my notes, list of birds and thinking out some remarks as a preliminary to my Bird Talk at Mrs. Duff's tomorrow morning at 11 o'clock. I have been invited by Mrs. Duff to begin a course of piazza talks, and I have rather reluctantly consented. I have brought up 46 skins from the Museum at home for illustration and I hope I shall interest.

This evening Mr. & Mrs. Mapes of New York came to tea and spent the evening. We had a very pleasant time. Mr. Mapes is a Harvard graduate of 1857 and we talked over College days.

49 Grindstone Neck, Winter Harbor, Me. 1901 July 24

A cool, pleasant day, sunny A.M., cloudy P.M. small shower between 3 & 4 P.M. Mercury 73°, 8 A.M.; 66°, 3 P.M. (63° 3 P.M. by Mrs. Taylor's Max. & Min. Therm.); 60°, 7 P.M.; 56° 8.30 P.M.; 54°, 10 P.M.

This morning I took a walk with Mrs. William Duff who lives in a beautiful house next to ours, and May Dexter. We went south to the point and then followed the shore on the rocks & cliffs west & north, finally striking through the woods to the main road reaching home by 1 P.M. It was a lovely walk with views of the ocean constantly before us. We examined the ferns particularly as Mrs. Duff is much interested in them. We saw Osmunda claytoniana, O. [Osmunda] cinnamomea, Aspidium spinulosum & var. intermedium, A. [Aspidium] marginale, Asplenium filix-foemina, Polypodium vulgare.

A Hermit Thrush alighted very near us and I watched him through my glass and saw him utter his whining note many times.

A ♀[female] Red Crossbill I saw within about 10 feet of me on a small Red Spruce. She was busily engaged in pulling off Usnea (moss), the lichen hanging from the branches & trunk. When she had all she could carry in her bill she flew off over the trees to the southeast, crying Whit—whit constantly and followed by a ♂[male].

I saw a Guillemot flying over the water, and after their fashion, and alighting off the point near a ledge.

Empetrum nigrum in full fruit, and Solidago randii in flower were abundant. I found one full fruited plant of the dainty Chiogenes or Snow—berry.

47 Grindstone Neck, Winter Harbor, Me. 1901 July 23 (2)

About noon we all walked down to the Swimming Tank, excavated out of the solid rock at a cost of $5000. It is enclosed in a sea wall, is very capacious, with sandy bottom and grades from a beach to about 11 feet in depth. Helen & May went in bathing. I met Mr. Richmond of Providence and his wife, Mr. Trotter of Philadelphia, Mrs. Taylor & Mrs. Dixon both of Phila. [Philadelphia] also.

May took me to drive this afternoon along the shore to what is called the Sands, a bay with a sandy beach, the nearest bit of sea beach to this spot. The drive is east through Winter Harbor for five or six miles. The country is very rugged grown up with Spruces, Birches, Arbor Vitaes, [?]. We passed a few farms. In several places the Swallows were very abundant on the telegraph wires. I made out the greater number, at least two hundred in all, to be Eave Swallows, next about one hundred, Barn Swallows, and about twenty-five Bank Swallows. I saw [Eave Swal-lows nests.] ten Eave Swallows' nests under the sloping gable of an old barn. The nests were placed under a slope of about 45° and could not be, therefore, constructed on the ordinary plan where the nest is placed against the side of the building. The nests were about circular at the base, thus covering more space and affording greater strength of attachment. The opening was in the side, or near the bottom. None of the nests had the bottle-shaped entrance, though some approached it. The opening in every case was merely a hole. It was a special instance of adaptation to the situation.

46 Grindstone Neck, Winter Harbor, Me. 1901 July 23

A warm day for this point, very hot on the board walk to the Casino at noon. Mercury at the piazza here 73°, 9 A.M.; 77°, 11 A.M.; 76° 1 P.M. Clear sky, light clouds [?]

I woke up this morning and heard at 5.30 o'clock [Empidonax t. alnorum [Empidonax trailli alnorum]] a Traill's Flycatcher in the woody stretch northeast of the house behind Mrs. Druff's. It was exactly the song I heard in June when I was with Will Brewster in Concord and later in Waverley. Later in the morning I walked over that region [?] and heard the bird singing a good deal. Then walking along the edge of the wood till directly behind this house I saw a Traill's Flycatcher and stood quite near it. It was uttering its pep of alarm constantly though it caught flies at invervals, flying from tree to tree in a small space and alighting from 6 to 10 feet above the ground. I should call this bird properly the Alder Flycatcher.

I wandered about not far from the house after breakfast and found the birds pretty abundant. Peabody Birds were singing freely, their song getting broken as the season advances. Juncos are abundant and in full song A Purple Finch gave me two or three times his rich melody and a Red Crossbill flew overhead uttering his whit-whit. A Hermit sang beautifully a few times but the Thrushes are nearly through with their singing. I shall note the birds later systematically. I shall also note the trees on the point. The house of my sister Lucy Dexter is on the tope of the ridge on the main road not far from the Inn. It commands a beautiful view of the Harbor (Winter Harbor) to the east. The house faces a little south of west.

43 Salem, N.Y. 1901 July 2–9 (3)

Birds observed in Salem and immediate vicinity the first week in July –

42 Salem, N.Y. 1901 July 2—9 (2)

pitchfork stuck into the ground were favorite resting places. The birds knew that they were secure at least from any harm by man and they took advantage of it. One poor Robin attempted, while I was there, to build a nest directly in the gutter of the old shed in the garden where the ice tools and other implements are kept. The spot was in the most exposed situation in the direct path of all the water flowing from the roof and close to the hole through which flowed all the accumulated water to the earth. Shipley, the man, tried to break up the nest, but Robin kept persistently at it and he was left alone. The partly—finished nest was a sorry sight when two days after there was a heavy thunder storm. It is needless to say that the Robin gave up the attempt. Within two feet of this spot was a covered shelf under the eaves of the gable end of the building. A small swinging box in one of the lindens near the house contained a brood of young Blue—birds The old pair had already reared successfully a first brood this season in the same box. Before our visit was over, the second brood had left the box. A nosy adult Purple Finch once lit in the path with four feet of me and Goldfinches perched in the wire fence quite regardless of our presence. A brood of Phoebes were successfully reared in two vents in the shed or "barn".