National Inland. August and September

Apologies for the lack of an Inland post last month and the lateness of this one but here goes.

The Inland table is beginning to resemble the footballPremier League, with familiar faces dominating the top six and a rather large gulf seperating them from the nearest contenders. At the bottom of the table it's still all to play for with just 12 points seperating 10th from 20th.

The Birding Gods smiled favourably on Wayne Gillatt during August, who after removing those dodgy Ruddy Shelducks went on to amass a further 33 points with self-found Great White Egret and Pectoral Sandpiper netting 12 points along with some good 'two pointers' such as Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper. August is a crucial month for waders and clearly Wayne's location helped as did Martin Elcoate's at Topsham. Those further inland struggled with an all too apparent wader drought.

At the bottom of the table we lost Tom Raven and Andy Mackay and welcomed Bill Aspin and Nick Croft.

Despite only gaining two points Wayne Gillatt remains firmly rooted at the top though things have really been happening below him. Steve Swinney raced into 7th place from 15th with an amazing day on the 11th where he added Guillemot, Arctic Skua, Spoonbill and best of all Sabine's Gull the latter not just a patch tick but a lifer. Chris Bradshaw, Nick Croft, Nick Crouch and Mark Reeder dropped out of the table replaced by Tom Raven, Mark Nowers, Patch Birding stalwart Jonny Holliday and Shaun Robson who has switched tables given his estuary location.

Best inland finds during September  were Steve Swinney with his aforementioned hat full, Jamie Wells with a Pectoral Sandpiper at Paxton and  Paul Massey (just outside the top 20) who found not one but three Pectoral Sandpipers at Grindon Lough (sadly just the 6 finders points though).