Coastal North Minileague - August

As Autumn begins to take hold there was a rush of points in this league and an impressive array of scarcities gracing the August highlights. A haul of 20 points in August for Tim Jones was not enough to prevent Martin Garner's Flamborough patch from taking the top spot thanks to finds of Barred Warbler and Long-tailed Skua alongside an impressive count of 12 different Caspian Gulls! Jane Turner remains in third position however she now has some serious competition for the last podium spot thanks to great months for both Chris Bradshaw and Iain Robinson.

Chris managed an almighty 54 points to jump from 8th to 4th in the table; during what he describes an as a 'truly superb month' he found Cory's Shearwater, Great Shearwater and Ortolan Bunting, the latter the first Scarborough record since 1977! Not to be outdone Iain found a Stilt Sandpiper on his Druridge Bay patch, a hatful of points and a bird which may well make it onto the shortlist for the Forest Optics Best Find Competition. Lower down the league seabirds feature heavily in the highlights, the best being Great Shearwaters found by both Jack Bucknall and Tom Cadwallender.

September has already seen a good scatter of Autumn migrants along the east coast so expect some more big scores, those on the west coast may have their work cut out to keep up.

The Stilt Sand helps Iain Robinson to take the lead in the comparative, nudging Alan Tilmouth down to second. With only 8% separating the top 4 places it's anyone's guess who will be the first to break through the 100% barrier.