This month’s list has been collated backwards from most recent sightings instead of taxanomical order to improve the list lusting experience. Note also that the country codes have been included to add the geographical frisson that has been so sadly lacking until now.

As the year progresses, the beats are finding new and exciting places to share from.

It has been like a pursuit event where one beat will drag the team forward before stepping aside to let another take up the pace.

Early in the event everyone’s contributions were making a difference to the total, but as the migration waned and the summer doldrums set in, it was difficult to advance the numbers. That is when our star performers showed how it should be done.

Dragan kept his lists coming nearly every day as a role model sharer. Corey went out in a boat and Duncan cut a dash across Africa. Clare came to UK to make up for Redgannet’s lacksadaisical approach to British birding while Patrick and Tom cleaned up in Central America. Now Nate has taken up the colours and carried them on a tortuous route from Colombia to the heart of the Dark Continent.

Who will run the anchor leg and make the final flourish to push the total as high as we can?

Contributions this month have come from Costa Rica, UK, USA, Qatar, Serbia, Uganda, China, Brazil, Kuwait,

722 species were sighted from 106 lists shared during November. 281 birds were added to bring the combined total to 2626 as at 30th November 2016.

 It is a dream, nay, a mission statement of 10,000 Birds to see as many of the World’s birds as possible. A Strickerian task for an individual, but the combined eyes and optics of beat writers around the globe might be able to make a fair fist of it.

Thus, a combined list of current beat writers will be compiled to see how many birds, weird and wonderful, common or unusual we can find between us. All birds are equal on this list; parking lot birds or pelagic species, breeders or fly-overs, all will be accorded the same status and each shall be worth 1 credit on the list. There may be a bit of backroom competition by the beats as only the first of the species will be noted on the list, but with a little delving, there is more information here than we first realised.

Unexpectedly, every entry can be highlighted as a link. So if you wish to check how many Mallards have been seen by the beats you can. Should the fancy take you, you could call up a 10,000 Birds life list (from 2016 onwards. Backdating has not been ruled out, but logistics make it unlikely) for a particular location or simply study the rest of the checklist from which the link was chosen.

This is not an exhaustive list as a few of the beats do not use compatible listing software, or have reservations about revealing sightings of sensitive birds. Others, by their own admission, are Luddites and believe that the pinnacle of human technological achievement was reached on the day that man first bound a notebook in moleskin. Still, the list will be as complete as we can keep it and will be updated on the first Saturday of every month.