Trip to Martha's Vineyard.
1891
May 8
Mass. 
Boston to W. Tisbury. Cloudless but with the air filled with 
a smoky haze so dense that the sun cast but faint 
Shadows and looked like a red balloon suspended in 
the sky. Weather cool with E., changing at noon to 
S. W., wind. 
  Left Boston with Faxon at 12 M. for Martha's 
Vineyard via New Bedford. Saw a Sharp-shinned 
Hawk flying over Nepassett meadows in Dedham. 
Mountain Laurel growing in abundance along the
trailroad a little south of Canton. Between Sharon and 
New Bedford extensive swamps of white cedar.
  Took the steamer at New Bedford. Crossing Buzzard's 
Bay saw two loons (one adult, one gray) and about 
a dozen White-winged Scoters, the latter in pairs 
rising from the water & circling around us. In 
the narrow channel between the north end of 
Naushon and Wood's hole five Black Scoters, two 
old drakes & three gray birds, rose and doubled 
passed us finally alighting close in to shore.
 Between Wood's Hole & Great Chop  two more White 
winged Scoters, two loons. a Red-throated Diver 
& a herring gull were seen. In  the bay near 
its head, opposite Vineyard Haven, six Laughing 
Gulls in full plumage rose from a sand bar
and flew off in pairs. There were thirty or 
more large gulls, which looked like Larus smithsoni- 
anus, sitting on a sand flat in the inner harbor 
but we could not make them out 
with certainty at such long range.
  The first birds we saw in Vineyard Haven
were a pair of house Sparrows hopping about on