Cheers Mike and Shi Jin - it was a good trip!
I had a longer but less exciting time at the sandflats this morning. I thought it would be less muddy while things were still frozen (which they were despite suddenly warmer air). I still didn't have a lot of luck in the reedbeds - lots of unidentified buntings, though in the end with looking at the book, I decided some of them were Pallas' Reed Buntings (and also noted that that is what Shi Jin had seen). Seemed like there were other lighter colored (larger?) ones too, but....
I did flush a female pheasant which I didn't quite expect in that area. Later across the street I also flushed a Grey-headed woodpecker - so I mostly saw the backs of several birds today! (By the way, the dam is completely gone, with two smaller earthen ones holding back water from each direction now. They may be getting ready to put in a new dam a bit further back from the road, but that's just a guess!)
My highlight for a quiet day came just as I was getting bored waiting for the bus and started walking, I saw a bird that seemed suspended in air! It was there such a long time I kept thinking it was something caught on a wire, but as I got closer, it was certainly a bird. I got several decent views, and its nondescript brownish back and slightly barred white tail makes me think it was a female Kestrel - my first time to see one so well, and especially to see both perching and flying. The wind was pretty fierce, and I didn't see her dive directly down after hovering, nor see her catch anything, but quite nice.
PS Forgot my question. I was watching the dozens of magpies and noticed a bit of their behavior with the sparrows/small birds. The sparrows seemed to give them a wide berth at one point, and I also noticed the magpies dropping in the reeds a lot. However, they don't actually prey on those small birds, do they?