The birding fraternity has seen a shift in
attitudes recently, with many birders turning their attention from twitching
towards rarity finding. As a result,
there also seems to have been an upturn in the profile
watching a local patch.
The advantages of watching a local patch
are obvious. Low fuel costs and travel time aside, great pleasure can be
derived from getting to learn a place inside out, observing how the seasons
change, and getting value from common species that otherwise wouldn’t get a
second glance. Throw in the potential for the odd rare bird or scarcity and to
me, you have a really exciting, involving way to enjoy your birding.
So what could enhance the patch watchers
enjoyment a little? Well, perhaps adding an element of competition would do the
trick. We’re a competitive bunch, us birders, both with our peers and
‘internally’ as well. We like a gloat, we like to add things to lists, and we
like to know what the numbers are. So why not see if we can add a little
friendly competition to our patch birding.
There is one immediate problem with this –
how do you compare one patch with another? The birder who ‘patches’ at Minsmere
is going to see a lot more species than the birder who patches at some inland
woodland. Also, how do you rate the species seen? It’s hardly fair that the
hard earned Radde’s warbler earns the same number of points as a meadow pipit.
And it’s a bit unfair that a self found Radde’s would score the same as one
that you’d twitched. I think coming up
with an absolutely bulletproof way of scoring a competition like this is
impossible – there are too many variables, but after some long and hard
thought, we’ve come up with a scoring system (actually a combination of two
existing scoring systems with a few tweaks) that we believe is suitable.
So bear with me while I go through the
rules and the scoring system….it might get a bit dull…
The
scores
As I alluded to earlier, the score each
bird earns will be related to its rarity. We have used the ‘Birdguides’ rarity
categories, which gives every species on the BOU British list a rarity value
(common, local, scarce, rare and mega). These categories will be scored 1 – 5
respectively. Those species categorized as scarce or rarer, if self found, will
have their points doubled, so, for example, the Radde’s warbler mentioned above
will be worth 3 points if you twitch it, but 6 if you find it yourself.
Again though, this definitely seems to
favour Minsmere over Manchester, and a patcher working Fair Isle could well
score an awful lot of points! But to level the playing field, to even out
‘patch quality’, we propose a scoring system that relates the observers’ score
to the tallies run up over previous years. This makes your score representative
of how good your year has been on your patch. To do this, all you need to
do is present your score as a percentage of your last years score – and as the
competition goes on, as a percentage of the average of the previous two years
scores.
This may seem complex but there is a
reason. We’ve trialed the points scoring system, and for the most part it is
fine. However, we noticed that there could be a little contention regarding the
value of some birds. A kittiwake, for example, is worth 2 points. A coastal
observer will probably see kittiwake every year, a lot, whereas someone based
inland would be very pleased when a kitti graced their patch. Using our system,
the points gained for the kittiwake by the inland birder (in this instance)
will have more impact on their overall score than the kittiwake scored every
year by a coastal observer.
For people who are new to
patch listing or have had a larger patch in the past we will run a league for
point’s only patches for the first year. If there are enough competitors we may
even break these down into fairer leagues e.g. inland league, east coast league
etc. Thereafter in the second year everyone can be included in the main
percentage league using their score from year one.
Simple? Well, no…but it certainly goes a
fair way towards leveling the playing field – after all, this is a competition
between patchers and not patches. To make things simple, we will
send each competitor a spreadsheet that keeps a tally of their score as they
add species to it.
The
rules
The rules are pretty simple. Your patch
must have an area of 3 km2 maximum (3 x 1km squares). It doesn’t
have to be rectangular, or comply with any OS grid lines; it can be any shape you
want it to be. It just has to be 3 km2 or smaller.
The birds that contribute to your score
must be within the boundaries of the patch (i.e. you don’t need to be), or,
seen or heard while you are on your patch. So, heard only birds count, distant
passing seabirds count, flyovers count, and birds flushed from the patch while
you approach your site count.
Unfortunately, to keep things in the here
and now, we won’t be able to wait for rarities committees to verify records of
rare birds. I should imagine the majority of rare or mega birds will be of
suitable interest to other birders to attract some ‘external verification’, as
will many of the scarce birds. However, more than one observer will see not
everything so we’ll just have to rely on the honesty of the competitors.
But we’re an honest lot aren’t we, so that
wont be a problem!
If you're interested in taking part in the challenge email us on patchworkchallenge@gmail.com if you have any more questions or with your patch boundaries etc.
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| Patch boundaies example 1 |
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Patch boundaries example 2
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