1890
March 10
Banana Creek, Florida 1890.
Early morning cloudy threatening rain but the sun
soon came out and the day proved fine and
hot with a delicious seas breeze (S.E.) which began
to fill up the bays & creeks.
  Off at 9 a.m. with Cory on horseback, Quarterman
and Roberts going with us on foot with decoys etc.
Our route lay up the beach for about two miles
The tide was nearly high and the surf very fine.
No birds on the sand - actually not on - but 
a good many flying chiefly Brown Pelicans 
which in long lines alternately flapping and
sailing followed the beach ridge with the 
utmost accuracy as far as the eye could follow.
Their flight is slow but majestic and their great
size and peculiar form and coloring give them
an imposing and most interesting appearance.
They trim their sails nicely to the breeze taking
it "on the quarter" and evidently utilising it to 
no small degree. There were also Gulls which I
took for L. argentatus & smaller ones which were
certainly L. Philadelphia several troops of the 
latter coming in over the sand-hills & playing
about like Swallows occasionally swooping
down almost to the ground, I thought 
for Grasshoppers. A few Royal Terns were
passing back & fourth*[forth] over the ocean.
  We finally reached a chain of ponds
where we took a boat & rowed a mile
or more seeing nothing but three or four stray
Ducks & two Kingfishers with a Shrike or two.
Returning took to the horses again & rode
about a mile to another pond. We had