Wales Minileague - January 2016

Another year in the principality and an ever increasing minileague. Hopefully in the not too distant future we can split this into coastal and inland as we have with the Irish minileagues but for now we will keep all the patches together. Top of the comparative league is Chris Jones with his Llysfaen patch which hit 60%. Alastair Flannagan is in second place at Swansea Vale to Fendrod Lake with 56%. Alastair also managed 46 complete lists and 1002 records on Birdtrack. Tony Swann at Brynna Woods is in third place just 0.3% back.

Ceri Jones is the leader in the Welsh points league with 102 and a healthy 1.21 PPB indicative of a productive month. His highlights include finding the Cosmeston Lesser Scaup on its visit this year with some fly past Brents also worthy of mention. Richard Dobbins and Wendy James both watch Teifi and are in second and third place respectively. Richard's highlight was the first Great Northern Diver for the estuary since 1985 and Wendy managed to connect with some close in Red-throats at the mouth of the estuary.

Elsewhere Peter Howlett refound the Lesser Scaup at Cardiff Bay for a healthy dose of bonus points. There was a skatter of unseasonal skuas with Arctics at Aberthaw and the Ogmore Estuary and a Bonxie chowing down on auks at Porthcawl. There were Firecrests for Alex Jones at Rhyl and Henry Cook and Julian Hughes at Conwy RSPB with a Siberian Chiffchaff for Henry as well. Certainly one of the best sightings was a Goshawk taking out a Woodpigeon on Rudry Common for Trevor Fletcher.