Patchwork Challenge

This our first look at the nationwide top 20 inland patches and for those of us familiar with the Inland North category it will come as no surprise that the top three sites (two individuals) are sitting at the top of the Nationwide Inland League. Those of us residing near the bottom or indeed outside the table should take solace from the fact that as site manager (Is that the new name fro Reserve Warden?) for Fairburn and St Aidan’s it is perhaps not surprising that Darren Starkey sits in first and third place with his patches. Also with an advantage of a different sort, and currently second, is Wayne Gillat. Wayne’s patch at Alkborough is clearly better positioned for those all important wetland birds - particularly waders. Some may dispute Alkborough’s position as an inland patch given it’s location on the Humber estuary, though situated at the confluence of the Trent and Ouse (next to Blacktoft Sands) it is some 20km inland of Hull and geographically similar to other inland patches...

The Bresser & Forest Optic Best Find Competition is the jewel in the crown for Patchwork Challenge. This is the best find of the whole patchbirding year as voted for by you, the competitors and a few more contenders threw their hats into the rarity ring this month. For the winner of the competition, those fine folk at Bresser & Forest Optics are very generously furnishing the winner of this esteemed competition with a pair of Bresser Montana 8.5 x 45 Binoculars worth £665.00. Follow the link to check out this superb reward that awaits one lucky patcher! June is a quieter month for rarities than May, and for many this is reflected in their scores for the month. A large number of patchers reported a quiet month, but for some the rarity roll call of spring continued onto summer's doorstep. The first contender for bird of the month was a superb find for Paul Bowyer at Sand Point on the morning of the 2nd June. Approaching...

Hi there. My name is Niall Keogh and I’ll be representing the Irish birding contingent through my involvement with the Patchwork Challenge as one of the newly appointed admin team members. Born and raised in Dublin yet I’ve always spent most of my time birding outside the county, often at meccas such as Tacumshin Lake or The Bridges of Ross. Whilst this has meant I’ve been treated to superb days with multiple species of yank wader or insane seabird passage, patch birding has always featured strongly for me and I’ve ‘worked’ several less frequently birded or seemingly less productive sites within striking distance from home through the years. I guess the patch which I’d be most associated with is that of Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow. This is where I started birding as a kid on day trips by bus from home with my father, later developing into solo forays where I found some of my first good birds as a teenager and then spending four summers in a row living on site as a Little Tern warden ...

This month we end on a biggie! There are some terrific patches with huge scores in the South West - with 6 patches scoring higher than Topsham, in spite of it's multigull madness earlier in the year. Joe Stockwell is in first place at Portland, a massive 34 points (but only 4 species) ahead of Kev Rylands at Dawlish Warren. Joe's place at the top was consolidated this month by self found pallid swift, and bee-eater. Interestingly, Sean Foote, also patching Portland is only three species behind Joe, but with a gap of 44 points. I can believe that south portland might be better in terms of quality than north portland, but I never expected a gap of that magnitude. It can all change in an autumnal raise of the bins (or maybe a few, in this case) so lets see what Sean can pull out of the bag. Paul Bowyer takes the top spot in the comparative league, with a gaggle of 5 in the peloton scoring between 80 and 90%. Just one good bird will take Paul past the 100% mark.   ...

Some great scores coming in from capital city so far this year. Adam Bassett and Nick Croft are in equal 1st place in terms of species seen, but Adam is well ahead in terms of points (well, by 6...). This is in spite if Nicks self found Blyth's reed back in may, reflecting the fact that Adams 120 spp must have a little more quality scattered through them than Nicks. Marek Walford is only just very slightly off the pace species wise, but his 8 species will need to be worth 19 points if he is to make up that ground properly. Micheal Terry and Jason Reynolds are in the top two spots, with the big points hitters of Adam and Marek in third and fourth. All of these big scores (in terms of species, the top London patches were only just behind my coastal June tally) are definitely challenging my preconceptions that birding in the big smoke must be dull. Well done all round.

Steve Stansfield has managed to overtake Ben Porter as top of the pops in Wales. It seemed to have been coming as the gap narrowed month by month and with Ben putting up stern resistance with some great finds. Can Steve hold on? Four points isnt much of a lead. Their joint find of a Blyth's Reed Warbler is the Welsh highlight for June. Barry Stewart remains in third place. Best of the rest was a Great White Egret at Kenfig for Darren Coombs but this must be a repeated performance as he has only gained one point this month. It may be a little spartan in terms of numbers of species at LlanfairTH but this isnt stopping AlisonC having a great year there and she is on nearly 128% and certainly a contender for the overall competitive prize. Henry Cook is in second with 94% thanks in part to May's Black Stork. It looks like he will be the second person past the 100% mark. Adam Tilt at Cefn Drum is in third.

The Coastal Scotland points table is beginning to read like a 'where to go birding' guide, with some top notch rarity spots (and Girdle ness) filling the top half of the points table. John Bowler is only narrowly ahead of Peter Donnely in second place, who was no doubt aided by a nice little bundle of points in the form of a Scops owl. Dan Browns 24 hour patching at Dunnet puts him in third (and Dunnet firmly on the map). Steve Minton has made some headway up the table thanks to a Blyth's reed warbler in his garden (only on Shetland, eh? Or Bardsey, of course...) Stephen Welch heads the way in the comparative league, but it's a real close run thing between him and Dave W at Burray, and also Bryan Rains on Mull who is in third.  

A very slow month for this league, a fact which made clear when only 7 of the 17 competitors submitted scores for June! The biggest gain was made by Iain Robson who, with highlights of Bonxie and Roseate Tern, added 11 points to leapfrog Alan Tilmouth into 5th position, the only change in places in the top 10.  Up top only Jane Turner increased her score, a Puffin sees her close the gap to Martin Garner in second to just 10 points. There were no 3-pointers in the highlights or best finds so it was down to the 2-pointers to provide some quality, the best being Cuckoo and Black Tern for Seamus Eaves at Fleetwood and Chris Bradshaw's Quail at Long Nab. No change in terms of position in the comparative league but Alan Tilmouth retains a healthy lead at the top, just 13% away from reaching his score from last year. Behind him however the battle for second place is hotting up, less then 4% separates Jane Turner, Iain Robson and James Spencer, the latter...

No June update from Tim Jones at Spurn means that Joe Stockwell takes over the lead of the NGB league with his outstanding Portland patch. A 12-point haul for a self-found Pallid Swift and a bonus 3 points for finding a Bee-eater sees him increase his points total to 253, 7 points clear of second place although Tim does have the advantage in terms of species seen. Ben Porter is still off the pace of the two front runners however he did have a great month in June with self-found Citrine Wagtail and Blyth's Reed Warbler meaning he manages to pull back 12 points on the leaders, will he be able to catch them as Autumn looms on the horizon? Lower down the table there were few gains during June and other than Ashley Baines jumping 2 places up to eighth, the rest of the top 10 is as you were at the end of May. Espen Quinto-Ashman listed his highlights at Wellinton GP simply as "None, very quiet!", whilst James Common showed what patch birding is all about at Stobswood by al...

Stuck record time - Tim Hodge is still at the top and it's going to take a multi mega miracle to top him! James Brown is the only one with a chance of catching up, being a mere 45 points behind, but third place is Gary White who is 73 points off the pace. Thats only 5 self found firsts for Britain... It might all be about the battle for third place in this minileague. At least there looks like there might be a bit of a fight... Nick Andrews is out in front on the comparative league, with a small margin, nothing like the massive gaps above. He's about 7% ahead of Gary White, who in turn is 8% ahead of Craig Fulcher. Craig is doing the decent thing and keeping our Ryan out of the top three....but it could all change if someone has a good autumn.

Another minileague and another desert for bonus points with Ben Moyes' Ring Ouzel at Needham Market an unseasonal treat and the highlight for June. The top three managed one point between them with Ed Keeble closing the gap by a fraction to Ben Lewis in second. Despite his blank month Jamie Wells stays out front. Hobby and Spotted Flycatcher graced a handful of patches but weren't the patch gold that many would have hoped for. Steve Swinney managed to climb into 4th with five points this month pushing Mark Nowers into fifth. Despite dropping a place in the points league Mark Nowers at Stutton stays top of the comparative league with 106%. Jim Bradley remains in second place and Steve Swinney becomes the third member of the hundred club. Congratulations to all three contestants on getting there so quickly. Will Mike M be next?

The half time, mid-summer lull has resulted in no major shake-up in the Irish mini-league bar a change at the top of the points table where Niall Keogh’s Kilcoole patch overtakes Dave Suddaby’s Blacksod patch for first place by a matter of five points (but with a notable difference of 26 species between the two… a direct result of a higher number of rarities found out West, epitomised by Dave’s highest points per bird score in the Irish mini-league with 1.56 ppb ensuring a comfortable lead in that respect). The O’Donnell brothers maintain their lead on the percentage tables, both of which are now well into the 90% bracket. Michael added eight new species since May, moving up one place on the points table but more significantly taking Eamonn’s first place title on the percentage table.  The lack of rarities found by Irish PWC participants came as no great surprise give that June was relatively quiet across the country. The addition of Roseate Tern to several lists w...

As might be expected, June proved a quiet month with most migrants having now arrived and additions few and far between. This was perhaps reflected by fewer submissions at the month end, and thereby a number of scores that have not moved in the month. Ian Cowgill at Lound still heads the way, breaking the 150 species barrier this month and racking up an impressive 184 points. A Red-Necked Phalarope for Andy Mackay at Eyebrook keeps him in third, spoiling the Nottinghamshire party at the top of the table as John Hopper and Nick Crouch on their respective patches make up an impressive top 4. 14 patchers are now totalling over 100 species for the year. An honorary mention has to go to the 5 birders who have topped 1000 bird track records, in particular Andy Sims who has topped 5000 records including his first Little Tern in 31 years! Great going Andy!   With autumn migration about to start, our 5 patchers with a comparative score are all looking to beat last ...

At the end of June, the league is looking like a three horse race (albeit with two horses?!). Wayne Gillett continues to battle with the Darren Starkey double, but loses his top spot to Darren's Fairburn Ings patch. Contrary to the experience of many patchers, these three sites brought in some good birds in June with Fairburn and St Aidan's hosting a very popular Glossy Ibis, a Pectoral Sandpiper at St Aidan's and 2 Ruddy Shelduck added a splash of colour to Wayne's Alkborough patch. All three of these patches are now over the 150 species mark. Whilst Tom Lowe has fewer species at his Goole Fields patch than the leaders, his point per bird of 1.375 leads the way, indicating an exceptional year at the site. Andy Bunting at Martin Mere joined the growing number of patchers in the month to add Glossy Ibis to their totals. James Common meanwhile exemplified what patching is all about, with highlights of an inland Arctic Skua sitting on almost equal footing with a patch ...

A slightly livelier month when compared with the South Coast but still pretty steady. Despite this there were bonus points for Graeme Garner as he found a Glossy Ibis at Cambus. Even better for Graeme is this moved him ahead of Simon Pinder and into the top three. The top two remain the same with Alastair heading it up at Old Nisthouse with a 37 point lead with this months highlight, a calling Corncrake, ticked whilst he was recumbent in bed. The leading Chris Pendlebury remains the Dunblane CP. The other CP's need to work a bit harder to be honest. As well as heading up the points league Alastair's great year is confirmed by his 111% score in the comparative league which heads the table. Chris is still in second at Dunblane and Andy Cage has managed to overtake Mr Shuttleworth and climb into third.

To say it was quiet on the South Coast in June would be to understate the case. Five scores were submitted and only four of these actually advanced anybodies scores. Andy Rhodes had the best update adding 43 points since his last update and moving up from 10th to 5th. There was no movement at the top and best finds were Red Kite for Neil Burt, Quail for Adam Faiers and Hobby for Mark Lawlor. Bad news when it is all two pointers! Still - its autumn now. No change at all here with Adam and Mark adding 1% each and we move on...

This is the May update for Patchwork Challenge’s blue riband event The Bresser & Forest Optic Best Find Competition . This is the best find of the whole patchbirding year as voted for by you, the competitors. Anyone could win this prize, and whilst those in rarity hotspots may have an advantage, it should serve as reminder to everyone else that an inland Pied Wheatear ran the competition to the wire last year. For the winner of the competition, the kind people at Bresser & Forest Optics are very generously awarding the winner of the best find competition a pair of Bresser Montana 8.5 x 45 Binoculars worth £665.00. Now that is a prize worth winning! As the Spring hit full swing and the migrants arrived en-masse, the ever exciting month of May resulted in a raft of rarities for determined patchworkers. It is a month that always helps to boost that all-important list, and each outing has the potential for great rewards. Our good friends at Bresser & Forest Optics ...