0th November - only about -1C last night. Mostly sunny, light WNW, 3C

Willey;

No obvious cold weather movements occurring here.

No particular obs today.

19th November - snow during the night and until about midday, light NW. 4C

Its seems a long time since we have had snow in November, the cover was about 4 cm, but melted away during the afternoon.

Lilbourne Meadows; afternoon

Not many duck around, 13 Shovelers, c 50 Wigeon.and Teal.  A Grey Heron.

Lapwing, c150 came in, possibly flushed from the pastures around the old radio station and c200 Golden Plovers.  These circled for a while gained height and headed off northwards.

A few Redwings, Fieldfares and two Greenfinches.  A Kestrel hunting and a Raven flew on to the lake side.

18th Nov - mostly cloudy, light ESE, 9C, rain late afternoon.

Shawell Sand quarry and landfill; afternoon.

A Jay in the wooded area by the house ruins.  18 Red Kites around.

Four Gadwall, two Shoveler, and five Mute Swans.  Good number of Gulls, specially Herring Gulls, but I could not find one colour ring despite many showing well on the side bank.

17th Nov - broken cloud am, cloud increasing light rain shower late pm, light WNW, 10C

Mere Lane Lake; morning

The lake held a nix of ducks for the WeBs count today; seven Shoveler, 15 Tufted, a Teal, 14 Mallards, plus Coot, Moorhen and Little Grebes.  A Water Rail responded to call play-back from the adjacent SuDs pool area.

 A Green Woodpecker was calling too.

Soar Brook Lake; morning

Few waterbirds, but a good count of Gulls _B-H,, Herring and LBB) on the lake and adjacent field, two Cormorants, three Mute Swans.

A green Woodpecker too.

Brandon Marsh; afternoon

c275 Lapwings, 6+ Snipe plus the usual ducks, including a lone female Pintail, on East marsh.  Among the flock of Greylags and Canada Geese was a Swan Goose.

Two each Great and Little Egrets.

Very few passerines about!

16th Nov - Broken cloud am, cloud increasing with light rain mid-afternoon, clearing later. Light WSW, 12C

As I do several small waters for WeBs counts I did did visit some today, nothing starting, but always nice to find a Water Rail.  At Stanford Hall lake  c10 Siskins were feeding in the alder trees with Goldfinches at the river bridge.

Lilbourne Meadows; afternoon.

c250 Golden Plover were with Lapwings on the west pool.  27 Shovelers, c50 wigeon and Teal on the east pool.  c 200 Starlings were around the meadows.

Shawell Starling Roost.

The roost has been building during the month and is reaching impressive numbers, I'm estimating c8000, but I will kn ow better when I have counted my photos.

15th Nov - sunny spells morning, cloud increasing, light SW, 10C

Willey

John Moore saw the Barn Owl at 1645h over his paddock, heading towards ours.

Thornton Reservoir; morning

Popped to see the the Long-tailed duck which has been present a couple of days, always good to see this scarce inland duck.

Also, nice to see a Kingfisher dashing about several times.

.Lilbourne Meadows; afternoon.

Very quiet everywhere, although the Shepherd had been attending to the Sheep causing some disturbance.  

The two Stonechats were still along the brook.

14th Nov - sunny spells am, cloudier pm, light NNE, 12C

Willey;

A couple of Mistle Thrushes were feeding on the road side field first thing, east of the village.   Often a pair take up territory in this area.

Stanford reservoir, afternoon.

A nice group of Fungi by the car park.

Plenty of Wigeon still at the reservoir, plus Pochard.  Today three Goldeneye (1m, 2f), two Teal and a drake Shoveler.

A single Lesser Redpoll and two Goldfinch were feeding in the orchard area.