1890
March 14
Banana Creek, Florida 1890.
Clear and hot, nearly calm in the morning or
rather with light W. to N.W. wind. In P.M.
a strong steady breeze from the S.E.
  Started for Pepper Hamack by boat at 9 a.m.
On the way down the bay saw about the usual
number of Coots and Scaup Ducks, a very large
number of Widgeon (fully3000), but fewer Shovelers
than usual. It was so still that all these 
birds were very shy rising half-a-mile or more
ahead.
  Reaching the hamack, I began at once to 
look for the Barn Owls. Scarcely thirty yards
from the boat I started one from a palmetto
and shot both barrels at it wounding it
so badly that it flew only a few rods and
then alighted on the ground where I finished
it by another shot. I was surprised at its
apparently great size when on wing for it looked
fully as large as a Bubo. Near where it fell
Robert, my boatman, started a second which he
tried in vain to mark down. Near the spot
where it flew I soon started a third which 
looked small and nearly as white as a Gull.
I had a hard snap shot and fired only
one barrel which brought a number [of?]
feathers but the bird kept on out of sight
and we looked for it afterwards in vain.
Both birds which I flushed made a loud
crashing sound among the dry palmetto fronds
just before they appeared. They must have
been sitting in the tops of the palms at the
base of the upright fronds which their