Waterfowl in the Mist We travelled two hours by road
to visit the bird-sanctuary, but as we journeyed we ran into drifts of mist that hung in the hollows and among trees. At our destination the warden told us we had picked a bad day. The lake was half-obscured. The island stood in the mist, looking higher and larger than it really was. It was cold paddling the leaky boat, a slow, uncomfortable job. Mallard rose in groups of ten or twenty. There were a number of poles in the lake, and on the ends of the poles cormorants sat. It was not until we were close to the perches that we realised how the birds " stood " on the water. Several geese and large numbers of smaller b:rds rose and swept round us. It was a disappointing trip, for we had hoped to „see them at close range. They were clime enough, but hard to see. When we taught glimpses of the geese, the atmosphere magnified them, as it did the perching cormorants, unttl they seemed more than half as big again.
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