Up to 24-11-13.

Birding these last few weekends has been a bit hit and miss and to add to injury I am only birding with my bins as whilst on holiday at Spurn the wind blew my scope over and it bent my eyepiece so that has gone in for repair, estimations are a four week turn round.  Ouch .  The weekend of 16th and 17th November was took up with work however I did finish decent on the Sunday and got down to WH for the last hour.  Birds of note were 5 Coot, 19 Tufties, 5 Pochard, 21 Wigeon, 1 Little owl and c220 Lapwing.   One count that was not good was 3 Mute Swan.  WH is an historic wintering area for swans, last year at this time we were in the 50's and the year before we were around the 100 mark.  Where are they?  Also where are the Goldeneye?  None yet!!!
With working the weekend I was given Monday and Tuesday off so I got out an about. 
18-11-13.
circa Alrewas - biking up the A38 to the first pit I noted 400+ Lapwing and 66 Golden Plover in the field north of Alrewas.
Alrewas GP - 44 Lapwing, 72 Wigeon, 62 Tufties, 38 Coot, 6 Great Crested Grebes, 8 Mallard, 3 Teal, 3 Pochard, 3 Snipe, 18 Fieldfare, 8+ Chiffchaff  and 35 Golden Plover.
Croxall Wides - 27 Mallard, 8 Teal, 1 Redshank and 1 Little Egret.
Junction Pit - 12 Mallard, several Redwing.
Whitemoor Haye - 1 Goldeneye (if you ask them, they will come!!!!), 26 Wigeon, 21 Tufties, 4 Pochard, 621 Lapwing, 436 Golden Plover.
19-11-13.
Croxall GP - 42 Mallard, 243 Teal, 1 Little Egret, 10 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Wigeon, 92 Tufties, 5 Grey Heron, 4 Shoveler, 4 Goosander, 3 Snipe, 19 Mute Swan, 2 Coot, 6 Bullfinch.
Whitemoor Haye - 5 Tufties, 4 Pochard, 29 Wigeon, 2 Grey Partridge, c600 Lapwing, c 90 Golden Plover.
23-11-13.
circa Alrewas - 4 Red-legged Partridge, 200+ Lapwing.
Alrewas GP - 4 Grey Heron, 55 Tufties, 14 Great Crested Grebe, 24 Mallard, 1 Gadwall, 68 Teal, 9 Wigeon, 30+ Redwing, 20+ Fieldfare, 1 Sparrowhawk.
National Arboretum - several Fieldfare and Redwing, 40+ Linnet, 19 Mallard, 3 Little Grebe, 2+ Goldcrest, 3+ Jay.
Croxall Wides - 64 Teal.
Whitemoor Haye - 18 Tufties, 25 Wigeon, 1 Green 'pecker, 40+ Tree Sparrow, c550 Lapwing, c200 Golden Plover, c250 Linnet.
24-11-13.
Today I had organised a trip out on the bikes with a work colleague.  we had planned to do about 20 miles but after 6 we were in a café feeling knackered.  After a short cup of tea we got back on the bikes and enjoyed a good ride covering just over 15 miles in the hour.  Once home I got showered, changed and got down to WH.
Whitemoor Haye - 8 Mallard, 2 drake Goldeneye, 36 Tufties, 9 Pochard, 23 Coot, 53 Wigeon, 13 Cormorant, 436 Lapwing, 2 only Golden Plover, 250+ Linnet, 160+ Fieldfare, 20+ Redwing.
Okay so finally the Goldeneye have started to drip in, I was informed that there were good numbers on a private pit not far away but no numbers of swans yet bar 17 that are feeding around Croxall.  The next three weekends I am working one day so that only on day so birding will be limited again however I do have a solid two weeks off for Christmas, I was planning a New Year visit to Norfolk however there have been a couple of issues with my house in Wales that could be costly before I try to sell it so I will be staying at home but I will definitely get there in the Spring.