A visit at 9.00 this morning coincided with a high tide and a break in the rain. From the canal bank I heard a Cettis warbler, my first record since the snow in December. The bird began with a sub-song, quite faint, and then over about 10 minutes the volume built. It was great to hear. Elsewhere reed buntings and skylarks sang.
Numbers of waders were low probably as a result of both a female sparrowhawk and peregrine on the marsh. There were a few bar-tailed godwits with c100 curlew and 30 black-tailed godwits (no sign of the 2 colour-rung birds seen yesterday amongst a flock of 300) and a single dunlin. Wigeon and teal were both plentiful and at least 8 pintail were scattered around in pairs. The 8 white-fronts were near the lagoon. I was pleased to see 8 as I had only seen 7 recently and began to suspect I could no longer count.
A water rail called and showed in the canal-side car park.
