There was a hard frost as Henry and I set off along the Maxey Cut this morning at 6.15am - a real winter-hard frost, with the ground hard underfoot!
I found a common sandpiper on the Martin Pit and heard the Cetti's warbler singing from near the mobile phone mast. At Etton-Maxey the female wheatear was by her familiar rabbit hole on the bank, but no sign of the male.
I walked up to the hard standing on the Etton Road, hoping to find the pair of avocets that Brian Stone and Chris Lines reported yesterday, but there was no sign. There were however, 16 common terns on the pit and a barn owl was patrolling up and down the east bank and across the planted areas, offering great views of this beautiful bird in the bright morning sunshine. A lesser whitethroat was singing by the hard standing - a regular site this.
Walking back along the Cut, sedge and willow warbler were very vocal, there was a garden warbler singing by the green bridge and plenty of whitethroat and reed bunting.
Finally, back at the Martin Pit, I found a pair of corn bunting (also seen by Brian yesterday) in the rough grassland east of the pit. This is a dumpy and fairly non-descript bird, but has quite interesting breeding habits, the male being polygamous.
(Pictures of the barn owl and common sandpiper courtesy of http://www.northeastwildlife.co.uk/)
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