Sunday January 3 - one of those days

 All too often visits to the patch are quiet, and occasionally frustrating. This was one of those days.

It was cold, although there was a hint of thawing, and mostly cloudy. The light northerly was a bit stronger than on New Year's Day, and few patches of last night's snow lay in Stapenhill Wood.

Dave joined me and we discussed birds we "needed" for the year. Dave quickly spotted one of these, a Jay which I failed to get a tickable view of. This rather set the tone.

I suggested we had another crash around the marsh, but this again failed to produce any Jack Snipe, and in fact we only flushed two Common Snipe. The flashes were still frozen but at least a couple of female Teal were new for the year. We paid our respects to the local Tawny Owl.

As we walked along the course of the Morton Brook a flock of about 30 Black-headed Gulls flew south on the other side of the hedge, another year tick.

Shortly afterwards I was fairly sure I heard a Brambling call, but it was distant and Dave didn't hear it, and after a certain amount of soul searching I decided not to count it.

We walked through Stapenhill Wood, but again there was no trace of any Woodcock. A Marsh Tit and a few Redwings and Fieldfares, plus a party of seven Bullfinches was all we could find.

Stonechat

Very few birds had come close enough to be photographed, and I eventually settled on a mid-distance image of one of three Stonechats seen to avoid the ignominy of a complete blank.

There's always next week.