A false start

My best ever day's birding at Morton Bagot was last year on April 22 when I was out from before dawn and reached 70 species, including Marsh Harrier and Wood Sandpiper. It had long been my intention to repeat the exercise on the corresponding weekend this year. Throughout this week I had been having misgivings about the plan. Spring seemed rather late this year. I decided to ignore the signs and give it my best shot, so at 04.00 I was scraping the ice from my car windscreen, and by 04.30 I was recording my first birds, the calls of roosting Jackdaws. By the time it was light enough to see my notebook without a torch I had heard 14 species including Tawny Owl and had seen a shooting star. Another 15 species later and the sun was rising, my only migrants were Chiffchaff and Blackcap, while the highlight was discovering that a pair of Teal was still present. I kept going until 08.00, by which time I had reached 49 species with nothing better than Willow Warbler, Coal Tit, and Jay added to the list.
After breakfast I returned and immediately located two Wheatears and John Yardley. We continued to the flash, hearing a Curlew (arguably the best bird of the day) en route, and then counted four Redshank, two Little Ringed Plovers, a Grey Heron and two Tufted Ducks. John went home shortly after 11.00, and I continued for another hour without adding anything. The list stood at a pretty disappointing 57 species, and John had gripped me off with Canada Goose (I think I'll get over it.)
By now I was pretty knackered, and so the afternoon was spent at home resting/sleeping. A loud bang against the window turned out to have been made by an unfortunate House Sparrow. It was still alive so I picked it up and eventually decided to leave it in an upturned Oat'so Simple box on the garden table. I had diagnosed shock and assured Lyn it would be OK once it had recovered...I hoped.
By late afternoon heavy showers were sweeping in from the north-west. Nevertheless I headed back to the patch and eventually added three more species, Shelduck, Little Owl, and House Martin. 60 species was the bare minimum I had hoped for, and I am now contemplating having another go, with perhaps a slightly later start, next weekend.

House Sparrows are in serious decline nationally, and although they are doing fine in my garden, I am a little concerned that they seem to be in reduced numbers around Netherstead Farm this spring. I only saw two there today.

As for the injured House Sparrow, it was no longer in the box when I returned home and so must have made a full recovery.