10th.—Sharp frost.
18th.—Milder the last few days. 55° in the day, in shade.
21st.—Frost again.
24th.—Strong N. wind and snow.
26th.—It has blown hard from N. and N.N.E. for three days; some snow. Starlings building in hole over the granary door.
27th.—Wind moderated, with rain. Much peach and apricot blossom strewn on the ground. [Yet from one apricot tree I afterwards thinned out over one hundred green fruit, and gathered one hundred and twenty ripe fruit.]
April 1st.—The first Chiffchaff appeared; in song, in the garden. I searched carefully in the most likely spots without finding one earlier.
7th.—Some (unknown) bird has in the last few days attacked my black currant bushes, biting off the fruit buds and eating them, although the leaves (many of which are strewn on the ground) are as large as a shilling. I have never known this happen before. We prevented further destruction by stretching black cotton about the trees. And I may now add, that this done early in the next season (1899) probably prevented a repetition of the damage to the bushes.
8th.—Good Friday. Saw a Swallow about the buildings at Bloxham Grove.
12th.—Several Willow Wrens in the garden. Redstart.
17th.—Cuckoo.
18th.—Swallows about the garden (the first on the 15th).
20th.—Blackcap and Lesser Whitethroat.
23rd.—Tree Pipit. Otter hunting in the Cherwell below Kings Sutton. Killed a dog and bitch of 18 lb. and 16 lb.
26th.—Sedge Warbler. As I passed in the train I saw a Coot on its nest on a piece of water on the east side of the G.W.R. near Wolvercot. Examined (and afterwards bought) a nice red Crossbill, one of four received from Buckland in December, 1897. Buckland is just inside Berkshire. Heard a Nightingale at Wolvercot.
30th.—House Martin.
May 1st.—Whinchat, Whitethroats, Wryneck, and Grasshopper Warbler.
2nd.—Garden Warbler in shrubbery. Two or three Swifts.
