Back Bay Basin,
Boston, Mass.
1909.
Feb. 27
(No 2)
a light easterly wind but it began to die away
soon after I reached my destination and alighted from
the electric car at the further end of Harvard Bridge.
No birds of any kind were then visable above (ie westward of)
the bridge but just below it I at once saw fifty or
sixty Golden-eyes scattered about singly, in pairs,
and in small flocks, on the slightly ruffled water.
Walking down the roadway at the rear of the line
of houses that front on Beacon Street I came to
a pile of lumber (on the recently filled parkway land)
about one hundred yards from the bridge and on
the very edge of the river. Here I found a comfortable
seat on which I remained for over an hour, watching
the birds through my glass and taking down brief notes
of their behavior from time to time. The lumber screened
me somewhat from their view but I doubt if this made
Whistler courtship