Pittswood Birds

A new month, and the first walk usually begins with a census of all the birds encountered, however, I have postponed this due to the weather. Heavy rain, and strong winds made it very difficult to observe much.
The target for November is 57 species, twice before reached, in 2002 and 2007, the previous 6 Novembers have given me a combined total of 68 species, so it should be quite possible.........but , alot of those species were 1 off sightings, so we shall see.
As I said, this mornings weather was atrocious, it never really got light! Saying that, the 7th bird on my list was a CHIFFCHAFF, calling from the hedgrow in ashes lane, now that is a good November tick! Other handy birds to add, were COMMON GULL, which are not common here at all, CORMORANT, one on the lake, with interestingly 46 MALLARDS, the most I've ever seen there. Despite scanning them over and over again, I couldn't turn one into a Tufted duck, or even a Coot, or more excitingly a Wigeon, anyway, I also got MARSH TIT on the list, two were in the wet woods, with the roving LONG TAILED TIT flock and a few GOLDCREST. After 4 hours I had 45 species in the bag, and was soaked! Tomorrow's weather looks better, and it will be my 100th full walk round of the year, each walk is at least 3 miles long, so thats err... em.... 300 miles covered this year so far!!