Inland North Minileague - June

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 first Coot. Patch gold takes many forms!

Many patchers are now using the birdtrack app to record their sightings. Andy Bunting has racked up a phenomenal 8909 species on 318 complete lists whilst Steven Ward has topped 5000  records at the halfway point in the year.

 

In the comparative league, two patchers are topping the 90% mark. Mark Reeder drops to 4th place as James Common takes top spot, but it's a close competition with plenty of time to run. The second half of the year is where additions get harder and just a couple of great patch moments could make all the difference as autumn wader passage gets underway.