Patience is a virtue I am learning, and the last day was by far my best.  I was screened behind a large piece of driftwood; the birds saw my approach and took refuge in the water.  I waited, and as if sensing my frustration and desire to get some food and sit by the fire, the birds began to return.  Bird by bird I became a part of their world.  The feeling I had sitting among them that last morning was a meditative bliss, an utter trust in the present and the climax of my time with them.  I sat, watched, they were themselves, unaware or unconcerned by my presence, they peeped and preened, dunlins feasted in a swarm and life was simple.