Sunday January 9

A cold sunny morning at Morton Bagot. I bid Dave a Happy New Year, and we proceeded to have a pretty uneventful morning.

The main issue was that most of the pools and flashes were still ice-bound. Consequently the flash field contained just 14 Lapwings, a Common Snipe, seven Teal, and five Mallard. Not exactly the stuff of dreams.

The rest of the site was equally uninspiring. We located one Stonechat, a party of 17 Goldfinches, 10 Bullfinches, and all the other usual birds in small numbers.

Fieldfare

The star bird was waiting for me at home, or more precisely in the garden. A male Blackcap appeared on our fat balls for only the second time this winter. It left before I could get the camera into operation, and an hour long vigil during the afternoon hoping it would return proved fruitless.