Bresser & Forest Optics Best Find Competition - Best Bird of 2014

Bresser and Forest Optics very generously donated a pair of Bresser Montana 8.5x45 binoculars as the prize for the best bird found by a patchworker during 2014, as voted for by all Patchwork Challenge participants. 

A total of 12 birds were in the ballot, in alphabetical order they were:

·        American Coot

·        Blyth's Pipit

·        Blyth's Reed Warbler

·        Broad-billed Sandpiper

·        Brunnich's Guillemot

·        Collared Flycatcher

·        Eastern Bonelli's Warbler

·        Franklin's Gull

·        Kentish Plover

·        Myrtle Warbler

·        Pechora Pipit

·        Red-flanked Bluetail. 

There was clear winner with over 60%  of the poll, the other 11 birds all scored almost equally and as such should consider themselves joint second. We think this was a pretty fair result.

Congratulations go to Jonny Holliday who found the Blyth's Pipit on his patch at Pugney's in Yorkshire at the end of the year, not the bird you would expect at a site so far inland. The bird hung around to delight the crowds at the end of 2014 and into early 2015. This will be a first for Yorkshire as the Flamborough bird from 1994 still hasn't been accepted, and is only the 23rd record for the UK.  We hope you enjoy the binoculars Jonny.

The fact that he found the bird at the end of the year should offer hope to everyone, just because someone else finds a good bird early in the year, never give up on your patch as you never know what may turn up.

Blyth's Pipit - Jim Welford

Commiserations to all the others in the poll, each of them worthy birds but I hope you agree that the best bird won.

Now we start on the quest for 2015's best find, there will be a prize for the bird voted the best at the end of the year, as yet we cannot tell you what the prize will be but be assured we'll let you know as soon as it is sorted.

January 2015 best finds

Sadly no megas were found on patch this month.  However a handful of rares did turn up during the month and Scotland was the place to be for most of them.

American Herring Gull - John Bowler

John Bowler, on the Isle of Tiree, found a 12 pointer on his Balephuil patch in the shape of a first winter American Herring Gull. 

Green-winged Teal - Jonathan Farooqi

Next up a trio of Green-winged Teal - seen right across the UK, firstly Paul Bowerman on his Severn Beach patch, Jonathan Farooqi also scored at Druridge Pools in Northumberland on his very first patchwork outing, and lastly Alastair Forsyth when visiting his Old Nisthouse patch on Orkney found not only Green-winged but also Blue-winged Teal during the course of one walk.

Alastair also had a Gyr Falcon on patch but as it was a dark phase bird and they are popular falconry birds, with many 'hacked' in Scotland, he has put this down as a highlight rather than a point scorer.

There were other raptors found on patch including Hen Harrier in two locations in the Inland North league and three White-tailed Eagles, where else but Western Scotland. 

Can I ask a favour - if you do find a good bird and manage to get photos please email them in to PWC so we can use them for the monthly review, it would save time when composing the reviews. 

The address to use is patchworkchallenge@gmail.com

Nick Morgan - Ainderby Steeple 2014

My patch is the area around my home village of Ainderby Steeple in North Yorkshire. It’s a typical intensively farmed area and with an all time parish list of 138 species I wouldn’t suggest dropping your plans to visit Cape May or Eilat. I do have an almost Gilbert Whiteian attachment to the place though and living ‘on patch’ allows for pretty good coverage (when work and family allows). 

Most of the area is high grade (i.e. low bird) farmland but there are areas of pasture and rough grazing, a couple of more traditional farms with good hedgerows and a nice stretch of the river Swale. Flooding occurs periodically although recent drainage  has reduced its prevalence. One of the most productive areas on the patch is a neighbour’s superb garden including a large reed-fringed pond (the only area of standing water on the patch) and a small area of damp woodland.

2014 was my first year of Patchwork Challenge and so I thought other patchers might like a brief look at the less-lowlights of the year (if only to realise how lucky they are!).

January kicked off with good areas of floodwater and this attracted a new patch tick in the form of a group of 11 Ruff. No unusual wildfowl were seen but there were record counts of Teal and Greylags, a flock of around 160 Curlew and good numbers of Golden Plover. Oystercatcher and Shelduck were added by March. Goosander are regular on the river but it was nice to get a pair low over the garden.

The first summer migrant was Sand Martin with Chiffchaff also seen before the end of March. A single passage Wheatear was my only sighting of the year but other summer visitors came in broadly on time.  

A singing Sedge Warbler was a surprise find in May having not bred on the patch for more than a decade and, completely unexpected, was a flyover Arctic Tern, the first parish record. Most frustrating sighting of the year though was Kittiwake. A friend had called to say he had spotted a large flock of Kits high up heading my way, I did eventually catch up with them but half-a-mile outside my patch boundary.

The breeding season saw good numbers of Yellow Wagtails, at least nine singing Corn Buntings and it was a great year for Garden Warblers, not always an easy species in the parish. Depressingly I didn’t see or hear Cuckoo on the patch this year.

Late summer saw probably my bird of the year, a Reed Warbler briefly holding territory around the neighbour’s pond (yes I know but we inland birders are easily pleased and it was the first record in the village for more than 60 years). It was also the best year yet for Little Egret Sightings with up to five birds on the river where I added Common Sandpiper and Grey Wagtail.

A Ringed Plover in September was one of only a handful of sightings in the parish. Like many of the patch wader records this was a fly-over and my lottery-winning dream would be to transform the bottom fields back to the marshy areas they were up to the 1950s when species like Black-headed Gull and Teal bred and there were records of birds like Marsh Harrier and Bar-tailed Godwit. A Marsh Tit was another pleasing find,  having not been seen in the village for over a decade, but it’s perhaps disturbing that it was only in late September that I spotted my first Treecreeper.

Autumn saw an influx of Jays with almost daily sightings through to the year end
(compared with only a dozen records in the preceding 20 years) and a nice passage of Woodcock with at least four birds seen in the magic garden alone, including one flushed from a tree. A good influx of Goldcrests in October meant I was sure I would spot a Yellow-browed Warbler (but hopes were dashed as usual!) and I also picked up Lesser Redpoll then in what had been a very poor year for the species.

The last week of December saw a final flourish with three year ticks all seen on the river in icy conditions, Redshank, Green Sandpiper and Goldeneye (the latter bird only the second parish sighting) to finish on 98 species.

Villagers often ring me to report birds and in 2014 this included six species I didn’t catch up with so it shouldn’t be difficult to breach the 100 mark. With a good start to 2015 (already at 64% of my 2014 figure) I’m certainly looking to break last year’s total and remain ever hopeful for that elusive five pointer….

Midlands Minileague - December

The midlands has a large number of competitors for whom 2014 was their first year in the competition. So the final scores this year will be the comparative for next. Ian Cowgill at Lound wins the Midlands title for 2014. Lound is a place quite close to my heart as it was my local patch in the early 90's so it is great to see it breaking the 200 points mark for the year. John Hopper has pulled away in second whilst Andy Mackay makes up the top 3 at Eyebrook. It has been a very competitive league this year as the scores testify with a number of sites running each other very close.

It is good to see a number of competitors submitting to BirdTrack, with Andy Sims in particular putting in an impressive 9621 records and 261 complete lists. It is very straightforward to do and really adds to the patch birding experience.

December saw a number of birds of note appearing at midlands sites. Perhaps most of all was a Reed Warbler on the last day of the year at Marston Sewage Works. Only worth one point but perhaps as rare as almost any bird found in December. A more likely winter warbler is the Cetti's which was recorded at 2 patches in the month, including Lound where it was a first for the site. A Scaup was also a addition towards the end of the patch year for Espen at Wellington GP.

NB. Rhys Dandy and Steve Lyons scores have been amended.

There were only 5 patches that competed in the 2013 competition. It should be a very competitive comparative league next year, but this year Matt Griffiths at Earlswood takes the title, breaking the 100% barrier with 103%. Congratulations to Matt. Nick Crouch fell just short of beating his previous year score, but given his Pied Wheatear in 2013 it was always going to be a tough ask. 

Bardsey 2014 - Steve Stansfield and Ben Porter

Last year saw myself and Ben Porter take part in the 2014 patchwork challenge. 2014 proved to be an excellent year for the island with higher than usual number of species recorded (averaging approximately 170 species per year) and a good scattering of rarities amongst them.

Being pretty much as far away from the east coast of England as you possibly can get, Bardsey is never going to be able to compete with the likes of Spurn or Flamborough, North Ronaldsay or Fair Isle for number of species recorded in a year or the selection of rarities that these sites get. However we do our very best to try and keep up with the big guns...

 Ben got off to a good start being on the island over the winter months and I didn't get back until early March. However, I was soon able to start collecting points and species which Ben had managed to get in the first three months of the year. By Mid-summer we were pretty much neck and neck, however Ben’s departure for him to sit is A-level exams meant that he missed Honey Buzzard. Then during the early part of the autumn, I left the island for my summer holidays and missed Kingfisher, which would've been new bird for me on Bardsey.

 Just as autumn got into full swing I had to leave the island again in order to represent the British Bird Observatories Council at the International Bird Observatories Conference at Falsterbo in Sweden. Although birding in Sweden was fantastic, I was on edge throughout the week - thousands of Honey Buzzards, Occasional Nutcrackers and Two-barred Crossbills couldn't make up for the fact I knew I was potentially going to miss something good on Bardsey. On the final morning of the conference I received a text message from Ben saying ‘ha ha Bonelli's Warbler’ – damn, it had happened! Two days later I was back on the island and patching again. Fortunately I knew Ben was due to leave the island in October and I stood a good chance of gaining back a few points on him. During this time he managed to miss Yellow-browed Warblers, Velvet Scoter, Hobby, Hawfinch, Treecreeper, Woodlark and Bullfinch and a few other bits and pieces. So that was the contest on the island and what we both missed.

But what did we see? As I mentioned earlier, 2014 was a fantastic year on the island and we had some great birds and fantastic falls. None of the species we had were new for Bardsey but we did manage to get some pretty crippling records in ‘patch’ terms. These included - the island’s 2nd ever records of White Stork in April (a great find by Ben – so six points to him), Blyth’s Reed Warbler in June (a joint effort – 12 points each) and Grey-headed Wagtail in September (more bonus points for Ben!). Bardsey’s first Citrine Wagtail was s recently as October 2010, so we were delighted to find a nice first summer female in May (another shared find for me and Ben and 12 points), and then we were astounded when another juvenile turned up in early August, a Ben Porter solo this time, but no points for either of us!

 The island’s 3rd and 4th records of Yellow-legged Gull came in the forms of a dapper juvenile in July and a fine adult in October, both of which Ben missed. April 1st saw one of the most unusual records of the year when Ben came across only the 4th ever Stone Curlew for Bardsey which graced the Narrows for the day. December saw a common ‘mainland’ duck – a Goosander, but it was just the 6th record of for Bardsey – another one for Ben whilst I was off at a meeting!

 The Western Bonelli’s Warbler that Ben found in the plantation in late August was the 7th for the island and another well-deserved 12 points for him there. Spring and autumn records of Marsh Warbler becoming the 9th and 10th for Bardsey, one each, so self-find bonus for both of us. A good run of white winged Gulls in the early part of the year produced the 10th and 11th records of Iceland Gull. A Greenish Warbler found by one of the Assistant Wardens on a fantastic day in September became the 11th for the island, yet the fifth in six years but no self-find bonus on that one! Sea-ducks are scarce passing the island and the 12th Long-tailed Duck flew past in October – both of us dipped. I found the 15th ever Great Crested Grebe in October, Obs staff managed to get on the bird but Ben arrived 10 seconds after it was seen diving under a wave and disappearing forever! April saw the 16th record of Woodlark (both of us dipping on that one), but I managed to find the 17th record with a flock of four on another mega day in late October. As previously mentioned seaducks are scarce on Bardsey and the 17th record of Velvet Scoter (three males) came in October whilst Ben was in Portugal, but I managed to dash from my office to see them fly south past the Obs. The 18th Goshawk for the island sat around the withies a few days later, again no points for Ben, but points for me. The Kingfisher was also the 18th record for the island, but we both missed out on that one. The 19th and 20th Honey Buzzards (Ben missing both of these whilst in exams) and 19th to 21st Red Kites were seen in spring both found by Ben. The 20th record of Roseate Tern made a brief appearance in October, but again we both missed this patch goodie.

So those are the #patchgold records for 2014 (where 20 or fewer have previously been recorded on the island) but if we look at the wider list of species and where the points came from, it can be seen we had a good year, and some good fun too.

On top of the fantastic list of '#Patchgold' that is already mentioned above, other highlights included some great non-passerines for Bardsey such as Brent and White-fronted Geese (Ben missed these) and Canada Geese (I missed these!!). Five Black-throated Divers and 16 Great-Northerns and lots of Red-throats. Two Marsh Harriers (both found by Ben) and two Ospreys (both of us dipping on these, even though one flew right passed me!). A Hobby was a very late and welcome point in late October, but another dip for Ben.

Autumn saw an excellent set of Greenshank and Green Sandpiper records. Ten Grey Phalaropes and ten Sabine’s Gulls, four adult Long-tailed Skuas, Leach’s Petrel, Sooty and Balearic Shearwaters, all of which were welcome points onto my list in a fantastic few hours in October.

We also had five Glaucous Gulls, summering Black Guillemots, wintering Barn Owl, Hoopoe and ten Wrynecks – points all round for both of us.

Passerines saw five Richards’ Pipits (again bonus points there), two Nightingales (one self-find for each of us) and a good run of Ring Ouzels including 26 on one day. Seven Barred Warblers shared unevenly between us, but both getting bonus points, but Ben found 3 and I only found 1. Yet another Eastern Subalpine Warbler for the island in May was found by a Cardiff-based patchworker so no bonuses on that! A total of 21 Yellow-browed Warblers (which all occurred whilst Ben was away), eight Siberian Chiffchaffs, 11 Firecrests.

A staggering 284 Spotted Flycatchers flooded the island on 15 May, but sill just one point no matter how great the day was! Three Red-breasted Flycatchers provided bonus points including one in Ben’s garden, as did three Golden Orioles - one self-find bonus each.

A resident Hooded Crow added points early in the year, as did three Common Redpolls and a Common Rosefinch (bonus points for me, but again Ben was stuck in an exam). Two Hawfinches provided interest in September and October as did a scattering of Snow and Lapland Buntings, with an Ortolan Bunting fiving another finder’s bonus for Ben. An escape Gyr Falcon (Nil Point !!) spent two days on the island whilst I was off the island, but fortunately the jesses saved me another 12 point dip!

We also had several days of fantastic passage of common migrants in both spring and autumn, some good sea passage, and great rarities and not to mention the 32,000 breeding Manx Shearwaters keeping us company all year.

So the year ended with me on 183 species and 340 points and Ben close behind on 159 species and 252 points. Points per bird was very close. Ben had a fantastic start to the year and was ahead all the way until October. I think if it was not for a single day of sea passage in October, where I amassed 9 new species and 30 points, and a great day of migration at the end of October where I got another six species and 8 points, Ben would have been way ahead on PPB, but in the end we finished on 1.86 and 1.84 – very very close indeed. His great finds of White Stork, Bonelli’s Warbler, Stone Curlew and Citrine Wagtail pulling back the points he missed whilst being away doing exams.

Coastal Scotland Minileague - December

Peter Donelly on North Ronaldsay wins the Coastal Scotland Minileague but only by the skin of his teeth as John Bowlers excellent year continues until the very end. John managed a PPB of 2.027 to go to the wire but the excellent autumn that Peter had sealed the deal. Gary Bell at Sumburgh finishes third 16 points clear of local rival Steve Minton at Scatness. Former PWC stalwart Mark 'dead to us' Lewis finishes as the leading mainland Scotland patcher on a respectable 224 points beating Dan Brown at Dunnet. Some Taiga Beans on the Isle of the May were first records for the island and the outstanding December record for Mark Newell.

John Bowler managed a huge score in 2013 so to defeat by such a large margin makes him a more than worthy winner of the Coastal Scotland comparative minileague with 122%. Andrew Whitehouse pushed him close finishing on 117% with Stephen Welch in third on 116%. Just missing out was Dave W on Burray on 114%. Mark Newell is the sixth 100%er in Coastal Scotland with five more patchers over 95%. It looks like it will be close in 2015.

Coastal North Minileague - December

There was nothing of note found in the Coastal North in December which means long time leader Tim Jones not only wins the minileague but also the overall points total, NGB minileague and all round good guy competition. Great job Tim and a shame that you arent able to defend SBO's honour in 2015. Tim had managed to add Blackpoll Warbler in November thanks to a bird in Mick Turtons garden. Martin Garner finishes second with a 91 point lead over third placed Jane Turner. Chris Bradshaw sneaks in ahead of Iain Robson who despite a very decent year cant quite hold onto fourth. Jack Bucknall manages to overtake his Northumbrian compatriate, Tom Cadwallender showing that sometimes youth does beat experience.

Iain wins the comparative minileague witha hefty 112% although nobody else managed to hit the 100% mark with both Jane and James coming close.

Inland East Anglia Minileague - December

It went to the wire in another hotly contested minileague and Ben Lewis managed to equal eventual winner, Jamie Wells' November score but Jamie managed a further seven points sealing the victory for Paxton Pits. Steve Swinney had third place wrapped up for a while but it was a great effort at Linford. Emma Webb managed to gain two places in December and climb to 9th with the Birdtrack guru Nick Moran rounding off the Top 10. Ben and Alison finished joint 12th (although through a quirk of table sorting Ben appears to be both above Alison and yet 13th simultaneously... A strong finish by Jake Gearty sees him jump up four spots in the final standings.  

First to eighth place remain as they were from November so congratulations must go out to Steve Swinney for winning the comparative table. A huge 142% score and a big points improvement. Mark Nowers finishes second and Jim Bradley rounds off the podium places. There were no new additions to the 100% club but great work for the top six plus a further 5 scores in the 90s. Lets see these beaten in 2015!

Inland North Minileague December

So we come to the final table, in what must be the most competitive of all the mini leagues. 

Whilst it was a foregone conclusion that Wayne Gillatt would take the top spot safely propped up by Darren Starkey's two patches, no one in their right mind would have predicted Jonny Holliday, or anyone else for that matter, finding a Blyth's Pipit! Not satisfied with that he then added another mega in the form of the Mirfield Thayer's Gull, when it got down for the evening in the Pugney's gull roost. With the resulting boost in points from the former and also a Red Kite Jonny leap-frogged Tom Lowe and Andy Bunting to steal 4th place.  Despite scoring the lowest PPB in the top ten (I had to get that in) Bill Aspin held onto 7th place - proving that the 310 mile round trip to twitch the Brockholes Night Heron in May, was wholly justifiable if not completely environmentally unfriendly (I also had to get that in). 

Of course for those of us who weren't Patchwork virgins in January 2014 it's the comparative scores that matter (cough cough cough).

James Common completely smashed his 2013 total achieving an impressive 130%. Of the 7 stalwarts 4 managed to beat there previous year, amazingly Jonny almost missed it! Mark Reeder narrowly missed out by just 2.4%!

A sneaky peak at the 2015 entrants suggests that the Inland North will once again be a very competitive league. Long may it reign.

Mark R

Ireland Minileague - December

All the familiar faces held on to their respective positions in the Irish minileague points table top five ranking come the end of December 2014. The tallies were as follows...

Dave Suddaby at Blacksod lead the way, scoring well in a number of different categories. He finished with the highest overall points total of 268, some 69 points ahead of second place and also with the highest points per bird value of 1.81 which is a testament to his wealth of scarce and rares at hand on the patch. He also managed the second highest comparative score with 109.388% which will no doubt make 2014 a tough year to beat.

Niall T. Keogh at Kilcoole maintained his second place position with 199 points (just couldn't find another new bird!) and the highest single species total for a patch in Ireland with 152.

In this, his first year taking part in PWC, Julian Wyllie did extremely well coming in third place on the points table with 187 points from 126 species and a notable 1.48 points per bird. A special shout out goes to Julian's dedication to BirdTrack for which he complied the highest number of records and lists in the league with 2704 and 59 respectively. 

Neal Warnock's first year at Larne Lough saw him take fourth place with 129 species and 168 points (looking forward to his efforts here in 2015) and Eamonn O'Donnell bested his 2014 score at Ninch/Laytown reaching 119 species and 150 points which placed him in fifth.

But PWC is ultimately all about competing against yourself and this is best shown in the comparative league table where Michael O'Donnell was the overall winner with an impressive 110.256% at his excellent local patch at Kilmichael where he clocked up 100 species and 129 points.

As mentioned previously, both Dave and Eamonn improved on their 2014 scores as did Tom Moore at Kilmore Quay who just crept over the 100% mark by a matter of 1 point. Both Niall and Neal (this time on Rathlin Island) managed to make it into the high 90%'s but a level score with 2013 just eluded them both.

Best Irish find of the year? Being both a first county and fourth Irish record, Dave's Red-flanked Bluetail at Blacksod is no doubt a contender and it certainly makes the overall PWC2014 Bresser & Forest Optics Best Find short list but then again his patch is at the south end of the Mullet peninsula and he was bound to pick up one at some stage (....I can hear him shouting at the computer screen now!) so I reckon, to be honest, that given the locality, time of year and significance to the patch, Michael O'Donnell's Barred Warbler at Kilmichael in November could possibly take that title in an Irish context?... Discuss!

The Blacksod Red-flanked Bluetail © John N. Murphy

Inland Scotland Minileague - December

As expected, Alastair Forsyth at Old Nisthouse has sealed the Inland Scotland title with an impressive 169 points at 1.44 points per bird. Graeme Garner and Rory Whytock make up the top 3, both bettering the 100 species mark. This is an impressive return for a part of the country that has a number of specialist birds but total species available can be harder to find.

Bird of the month was a White-Tailed Sea Eagle added by Andy Cage at Kilmany.

It's good to see a number if patchers exceeding the 1000 mark for BirdTrack submissions, Alastair Forsyth contributing over 8500 records and 299 lists.

In the comparative league, Alastair Forsyth has hit an impressive 132%. Andy Cage at Kilmany fell just short of the 100% mark. 2015 is a new year and time to try to hit the 100% marker again!

Coastal East Anglia Minileague - December

Tim Hodge got off to a great start in the early months of the year and has kept up the momentum taking the title by a distance. His score off 352 is a reflection of some really good finds with a points per bird of almost 1.7. James Brown takes second falling agonisingly short of the 200 species mark whilst Gary White added Jack Snipe in December to take 3rd spot in what was a hard fought race to the finish.

In the birdtrack submissions, Tim Hodge took the title for the whole challenge with a mightily impressive 14,227 records. An article posted recently on the Birdguides website by Ryan Irvine really gets into the benefits of using the BirdTrack app, so maybe something to consider for PWC2015.

6 patchers have taken part in both the 2013 and 2014 competitions. Gary White at North Walsham takes the comparative league with a monster 120%. It is good to see other patchers beating their comparative too with 4 of the 6 contenders surpassing the 100% marker. There should be quite a number of players in the comparative league next year so PWC 2015 should be very competitive in Coastal East Anglia.

South Coast Minileague - December

Congratulations to Adam Faiers at Sandwich Bay who edges out Andy Johnson at Sandy Point by a whisker. 6 points seperated them at the end as they galloped away form the competition in the south coast league. Amy Robjohns who had the Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler earlier in the year takes third.

Not many BirdTrack scores in this league so it may be something to pick up in 2015. There are many benefits to using the BirdTrack app, and it can really add to the birding experience.

Adam Faiers' great year at Sandwich was confirmed as he took the PWC2014 comparative score title with 148% comparative. Andy Johnson had his worst year in his ten years recording at Sandy Point and also suffered for a superb 2013 in which he went over 303 points. Congratulations also to Mark Lawlor on Guernsey who hit the 100% marker by the end of the year, matching precisely his score from 2013. Now that is consistency!

London Minileague - December

After a quiet December, Adam Bassett maintains the gap at the top to take the title. 136 species and 173 points is an impressive total for a London site. Nick Croft ended the year beating himself into 3rd place, with his Wanstead patch pipping Rainham to second spot. With Olive-Backed Pipit and Blyth's Reed Warbler in the year, Wanstead has really turned out a couple of the national inland highlights, so probably warrants that second place finish.

Roger Hicks at Henlow Grange has been turning in impressive BirdTrack records with over 6500 in the year. Tom Stevenson at Ewelme Watercress Beds has also records good totals of records and lists in the year. It really is a tool to add value to your local birding.

Congratulations to all of our competitors in PWC2014.

NB. Stephanie Brown's score has been amended.

In the comparative league, Adam Bassett's good year at Little Marlow is evidenced by an impressive comparative score of 109%. Michael Terry at Hosehill Lane had an even more impressive year however, taking the comparative title with 113%, with a patch tick Marsh Tit in December to really cap off his year. Congratulations to Michael.

The Bresser & Forest Optics Best Find Competition Review of 2014

The Bresser & Forest Optics Best Find Competition 

Review of 2014

It's that time again folks, you have got to get your thinking caps on and vote for who you believe to have found the best bird of 2014. The person with the most votes will win the Bresser Montana8.5 x 45 binoculars, worth £665.00, kindly donated by those great people at Bresser and Forest Optics.

To help you make up your mind here's a run-down on what was about and more importantly found on patch during the year starting with a round up December's birds.

December

It has been difficult to write the review for December as a fair number of people included their highlights for the year in the response box, rather than just December's birds. Once I'd done a bit of delving I think I have got things sorted correctly, if I have missed out your find then I apologise in advance. 
There was only 1 mega  this month, step forward Johnny Holliday at Pugneys in West Yorkshire, his Blyth's pipit was an outstanding inland record. The bird stayed until the new year allowing many birders to start the year with a cracking bird. Later on in the month Johnny also had a Thayer's gull on patch but as this was a bird that had originally been found a short distance away at Mirfield it doesn't quite have the kudos of the pipit. Other notables during the month were Ivory Gull, Kumlien's gull, Penduline Tit and a late Yellow-browed warbler for Dan Chaney at Falmouth.

 

Blyth's Pipit - Jim Welford

January

With the year just starting a the first bird worthy of adding to the shortlist was the Blue-winged Teal found by Alistair Forsyth at his Old Nisthouse  patch.

Martin Garner's Northern Treecreeper found on his Flamboro Head North patch was another worthy bird during the month.

Other notables that don't quite make it are the numerous Glossy Ibis finds, a couple of Ring-billed Gulls in Ireland and Mark Lawlor in Guernsey found the first of the year's Kumlien's Gulls.

February 

Not the month for adding to the short list although some good birds were found, Sabine's Gull and American Wigeon on the Inner Hebrides and by way of contrast on the Outer Hebrides Brian Rabbitts found a Ring-necked duck on his Balranald patch.

March

Even worse than February as there were no 'new' birds found at all during the month. The 4 Kumlien's Gulls that were found on patches brought the to total to 8 birds recorded by PWC birders this year. There were 3 Green-winged Teal logged by Patchworkers as migration of the winter wildfowl flocks started up.

April

At last some more variety with 14 species found that scored 3 or more points. Top of the list are Franklin's Gull found by Barry Stewart on his Burry Inlet patch and a second Blue-winged Teal for Alastair Forsyth. Sadly we can only give him the one shot at the binoculars though.

There were a couple of  'Firsts' recorded during the month, Ian T with Serin on the Outer Hebrides and Espen Quinto-Ashman found Herefordshires first Bluethroat, Nice work guys.

May

Migration started to speed up this month with a couple of additions to the shortlist -  Alan Tilmouth's Eastern Bonelli's Warbler on his Newbiggin patch and the male Collared Flycatcher that John Bowler logged for his Tiree patch, which was also a County first. Other good birds found included Black Storks at Dawlish, Goole Fields & Little Orme, Citrine Wagtails at Bardsey, Portland and Red Rocks. However I don't think that many people would argue that the best of the also-rans had to be the breeding plumaged White-billed Diver found at Falmouth by Dan Chaney, only a flyby but what bird.

June

Best find honours for June were shared between Paul Bowyer and Joe Stockwell. Paul found a Greenish Warbler at his Sand Point patch, initially picked up on song, Paul was able to get several other birders on to the bird during it stay. Joe however had a brief flyby from a Pallid Swift at Portland Bill and so wasn't able to be quite so generous.

Other good birds seen during the month were Glossy Ibis - logged on several patches including Graeme Garner on his Cambus patch in Scotland. Further Citrine Wagtails were at Bardsey and Balnakeil in Scotland  

July

This month saw Martin Garner add another bird to the list - a Baltic Gull found on his Flamborough Head patch whilst Toby Collett made his first appearance in the list with the Lesser Yellowlegs he photographed at Frampton Marsh.

Lesser Yellowlegs - Toby Collett

Joe Stockwell might have been in with a shout this month if he had been the finder of the Black-browed albatross at Portland Bill - even so I bet he is still on cloud nine over that bird. 

August

Bird of the month has to be the Booted Warbler found on Orkney by Barrie Hamill. 

 

Booted Warbler - Paul Higson

One that would have been on the shortlist if it were not for it being a refind would be the Stilt Sandpiper on Ian Robson's Drurudge Pools patch, shame.

Other notables were yet more Citrine Wagtails, Long-tailed Skuas, Ortolan Bunting and Icterine Warbler

September

Lots of great birds around this month but sadly most of them seen but not found by PWC contestants. Of those that were found on patch, the first was Olive-backed Pipit at Wanstead, Nick Croft picked up this bird on call as it flew towards Long wood. Sadly not found again. The other bird was Fea's Petrel, Iain Robson heard the news of the bird flying North along the coast, he gambled that the bird would pass his Druridge Pools patch, rather than making his way to Newbiggin which would seem to offer the best chance of a view. His gamble paid off and he got #patchgold. 

 

Fea's Petrel - Mark Newsome

Probably the best not found bird has to be the Masked Shrike at Spurn, if Tim Jones had been the first to see the bird he would probably be in prime position to lift the prize but sadly it was not to be. 

October

Third mention for Mr Garner, flyby Brünnich's Guillemot at Flamborough Head, a distant bird that was seen by a few other birders but as is normal with sea watching the bird was long gone in moments. The second contender this month was a much more co-operative bird, the Red-flanked Bluetail found by Dave Suddaby at Blacksod stayed for a while allowing a good many birders to connect with a handsome little 15 pointer. This was a first for County Mayo and only the fourth for Ireland as a whole so kudos to Dave.

Red-flanked Bluetail - John N Murphy

Following on from last month's Masked Shrike miss, a disappointed patchworker has to be Peter Donnelly on North Ronaldsay who dipped on the Black-billed Cuckoo but he made up for it with both Olive-backed and Pechora Pipit on patch.

November

Bird of the month for a lot of people has to be Brian Rabbitts' American Coot at Balranald on North Uist, initially told of a coot with some white under the tail Brian managed to find the bird and also nail the id. 

American Coot - Steve Duffield

A slew of warbler species were found during the month ensuring points for Michael O'Donnell (Barred), Sean Foote (Dusky), Phil Woollen and Kev Rylands (Yellow-browed). Interesting fact - Kev has logged 6 Yellow-browed Warblers over the last two years on his Dawlish Warren patch but has yet to find Coal Tit. Other birds of note during the month were Surf Scoter - Ed Keeble, Ring-necked Duck - John Bowler also Andy Mackay and lastly Ring-billed Gull - Marcus Lawson

That's all for now so get your thinking caps on and vote your best bird of the year.