Stephen Welch is the first to reach the 100% milestone in the Coastal Scotland Comparative Minileague after a fine September at Gosford Bay where a male Surf Scoter, Black-throated Diver and his second patch Merlin in 11 years brought him to 134 species and 161 points.
Mark Lewis finally got around to submitting his scores! With a comp score of 93.6%, he is catapulted all the way from last place to second, a feat greatly assisted by some excellent patch finds at Girdle ness (detailed below).
Also at Girdle ness (and Torry), Andrew Whitehouse added 8 new species and 8% to his comp score, helping him keep his hold on fourth place. Bullfinch was a good patch find for him there.
An epic September of patch birding at Girdle ness for Mark Lewis started with a cracking Red-footed Falcon (which showed extremely well) and was quickly followed up a couple of days later by his long awaited 200th patch tick in the form of a Sabine's Gull. It's product flurries like that which patch birders savour most. Mark also connected with all round good patch birds like Pochard, Grey Plover and Yellow Wagtail.
The result of all this? Mark now sits firmly on top of the points minileague table with a very respectable 147 species, 207 points and 1.4 PBB.
Jonathan Clarke had a good month at Whiteness Head where Great Skua, Great Northern Diver, 7 Grey Plover and a Jay were all top patch birds for him. The Grey Plover count was his highest to date and the Jay a recent colonist to the area.
Over half of the contestants on the table are now clear of 150 points. With October ahead of them, we're likely to see several gains for contestants in the Coastal Scotland minileague.
Red-footed Falcon © Mark Lewis
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