Friday January 23

A day off for non-birding reasons nevertheless gave me the chance of a quick gallop round the patch. Overnight there had been an extremely hard frost, and even by 11.00, when I arrived, the temperature had not peeped over 0' C.

Sadly this was not to be a particularly memorable visit. There were plenty of buntings seeking what food they could along the trackways, and I did flush an impressive 12 Song Thrushes from the spindly hedge behind the pool. This species seems particularly attracted to Morton Bagot in winter for some reason. There were slightly more Redwings and Fieldfares around, but you rarely see flocks of Song Thrushes in the Midlands.

Although I didn't walk through the marsh, 16 Common Snipe panicked as I walked passed, so there must have been plenty in there. Virtually no ducks or waders other than Snipe were visible, and the accompaniment of gun shots from the surrounding woodland (and the ice) reminded me why this was.

Back at the car I thought I had better photograph something.

Dunnock

Thank goodness for this obliging Dunnock.