Both yesterday morning and this morning were cold and frosty,  but with plenty of sunshine and light winds, it felt very pleasant out on my short patch visits.

Early visits to the Lakes and Scrubby Woods were made on both mornings, yesterdays highlight was finding a pair of TEAL (64) on the main lake, a new species for the months list. This morning however saw the lakes 90% frozen over, limiting what was seen to Mallards and Moorhens. The adjacent Scrubby Woods had the usual good variety of bird species present, which included among the more common species were; NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST, BULLFINCH, LONG TAILED TAILED, COAL TIT, GREEN WOODPECKER, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER and SISKIN.

A walk around the farmland parts of my patch didn't provide much of note on the ground, but a flyover LAPWING was nice and a SNIPE (65) that flew over Migrant Alley was another for the months list. The female KESTREL was hunting over the Ashes Lane Fields, where a BUZZARD was also seen flying low over. A GREY WAGTAIL was seen at the Greenhouse grounds.

So November ended with a couple of new species right at the death, taking the months bird tally to 65, which is just one short of the mean species total achieved for the previous five Novembers, and takes it to joint sixth place out of fifteen ( joint with 2013) in the rankings.

Goldcrest

There were blue skies and plenty of sunshine this morning, making it feel very pleasant in the light winds.

In the good conditions I carried out the tenth and last full patch walk of November, where I was fortunate enough to add, from the 43 species recorded, a new species for the months list, that being a LITTLE EGRET (63), when one flew over the Greenhouse Grounds. The November list is now equal that of November 2009 and at 63 it's the eighth highest from the fifteen Novembers recorded so far, however, it is still 3 below the mean average species total for the previous 5 Novembers.

A GREY WAGTAIL was feeding around the Greenhouse Grounds, where the KESTREL pair were also seen hunting. Singles of SKYLARK, SISKIN and MEADOW PIPIT, plus a few BLACK HEADED GULLS and HERRING GULLS were all noted as I walked a circuit of the sheep pasture and paddocks of Migrant Alley, but nothing of note was on the fields.

A BUZZARD flew low over the Ashes Lane Fields as I was en route to the Wet Woods, lakes and Scrubby Woods, where most of the regulars and semi regulars showed up, apart from Stock Dove, the best of those, as always, being GOLDCREST, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, LONG TAILED TIT, COAL TIT, BULLFINCH, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, GREEN WOODPECKER and the CHIFFCHAFF that was once again seen along the banks of the main lake - nothing of note on any of the lakes, though a CORMORANT flew over and thought about visiting, but had a change of heart.

The Small Holding Area was good for a few more of the common regular species, as well as 6-8 FIELDFARE and 2 MISTLETHRUSHES.

Female Kestrel on a telephone pole along Ashes Lane 

One of the ''Common regular'' species  :-)