60 [page number] 
[25.10.47] flocks, or feeding in small groups. By crawling to them 
on the ground I could approach within a few yards. 
At first they seemed through the glasses to be just 
brown and white birds. I watched for an hour, 
feeding, walking, flying, preening or sleeping, by the end 
of which I felt I knew every feather and they were 
a "distinct species" not just a sandpiper. They were 
COMMON SANDPIPERS which I had last seen on the 
banks of the Derwent at Borrowdale! 
I walked southwards on the west side of the 
swamp to the Lake from which it was separated by some 
hundred yards of dry land. There were twenty-five 
PELICANS which swam disdainfully out as I neared, 
more SWAN and B MOUNTAIN DUCK as well as several 
pairs of LITTLE PIED CORMORANTS and a single MUSK DUCK. 
The sun was low as I returned the other side of the 
swamp and the wind brought across to me the 
cacophony of SWANS -flute-like calls as the *[they] fed in 
numbers on the swamp. 
26.10.47 On the following day - a warm and rather close one- 
(29) I went in the afternoon to Yeodene, To the north and 
west was bush which had at one time been cleared and 
is now a new growth of gums while a few hundred 
yards away is a gully as deep and wet as any in 
the Otways. To the south is a beautiful view of 
