Coastal Scotland Minileague - March 2016

March finally saw Chris Rodger swiped from his perch at the top of the comparative leader board. Adding another 5% wasn't quite enough for him to hold onto his reign at the top. Stepping up to the plate is Stephen Welch and his Gosford Bay patch. He managed an impressive leap from third place with 17% gained since February!

At Aberlady Bay, Mike Hodgkin is also progressing up the league table with an 8% increase, moving him into fourth place and hot on the heels of Andrew Whitehouse who didn't manage to add a single species for the month.

He may have slipped on the comparative scores but Chris Rodger isn't giving up the top spot on the points league. With a tidy haul of birds including Black-throated Diver, he's increased his lead over second place by seven points.

Adding Iceland Gull could prevent Geoff Morgan and his Barns Ness patch dropping into fourth place as Stephen Welch and Mike Hodgkin move up the points league. Iceland Gull featured elsewhere this month, with Colin Davison (Scoughall) and Andrew Whitehouse (Girdle Ness and Torry) both connecting with a white-winger.

Iceland Gull, Barns Ness (credit: Geoff Morgan)

Highlights were slim for March with Iceland Gull gracing the three patches mentioned above and a small selection of waterbirds enjoyed by Stephen Welch at Gosford Bay - Whooper and Pale-bellied Brent Goose. Stephen yet again impressed with his BirdTrack recording, managing 581 record submissions! Elsewhere, Common Crossbill was encountered by Jonathan Clarke at Whiteness Head and a Red-necked Grebe for Geoff Morgan at Barns Ness.

Coastal East Anglia Minileague - August

Tim Hodge at Horsey remains at the top in the Coastal East Anglia and looks on course to blast through the 300 point barrier. James Brown added 29 points in August thanks to finding Long-tailed Skua and Icterine Warbler to keep a foot in the door to winning the minileague. Gary White added 15 points at North Walsham to move up into third place above Gary Elton. Tommy Corcoran moves up one spot into sixth. Other Decent finds include Wryneck for Ryan Irvine and Greenish Warbler for Craig Fulcher. No big finds for Toby Collett this month but Red-necked Phalarope and White-rumped Sandpiper for some decent quality.













The top two both went over 100% in the Coastal East Anglia and Gary White closed the gap to 0.25% but Nick Andrews maintains his lead. Craig Fulcher and his Greenish managed to add 6% and stay on track for a 100% year.

Coastal North 2013 Minileague

Ian Mills gets the win in the Coastal North Minileague but after sitting pretty for a good portion of the year he won by a single point as Jane Turner at Red Rocks leapfrogs Iain Robson at Druridge. There was little change in December with a few points added here and there but no other position changes.

Iain Robson holds on to the comparative league despite Ian Mills closing the gap and Jane Turner busting through 100% like it didnt even exist to get third place. Alan Tilmouth at Newbiggin misses out on a podium place but can be satisfied with being the final member of the 100 club in the Coastal North.

Wales 2013 Minileague

The results are in and Steve Stansfield has won by a landslide in the points league with an outstanding 310 species. Ben Porter leapfrogs Mathew Meehan to make it a Bardsey Top 2. Further down Julian Hughes managed to split Henry Cooks twin patches of Conwy and Little Orme with his own efforts at Conwy. Elsewhere things remain the same. Well done to all involved... I wonder if anyone can make inroads into Bardsey's dominance?

Congratulations to Marc Hughes with a superb score of 152%. Henry Cook took him close with his Conwy patch finishing on 148%. All the remaining positions have remained the same since November but a closely fought league with no scores under 90%. Five 100 percenters this year - hopefully next year will be equally successful in Wales.

Inland North 2013 Minileague

Jonny Holliday takes the title in the Inland North Minileague after finishing third nationally. A superb 189 points and 149 species - can he make it 150 in 2014? Pete Antrobus has managed to climb into the silver medal position bringing himself level with Mark Reeder at the close of play. Few additions were made in the final month although Adrian & John managed to pull level with Mark Breaks for joint 4th place. James Common at Stobswood also managed to gain a place whilst George Watola fell three places to 11th. A really competitive league with friendly rivalries that hopefully carry on to 2014.

James Common wins the 2013 comparative minileague with a whopping 148%. Six competitors managed to breach 100% with Mark Breaks getting within a couple of points. Richard and Chloe May made it in the final month and in doing so went back ahead of Mark after he claimed 6th in November - its the final scores that matter! Well done to all that took part and hopefully more decent birds are found next year.

Wales Minileagues

 Well, eventually I get round to the last minileague - with sincere apologies to anyone in Wales who might have been waiting!

For once, we have a bit of a polarity between the top of the points league and the top of the comparative leagues. Our friends on Bardsey occupy 1st and 3rd place in the points league, but are bottom and 3rd bottom in the comparative league - probably a result of posting very reasonable comparative scores (which is exactly what you'd expect from a bird observatory!)

Matthew Meehan separates the Bardsey Boys in the points league, with a very respectable 205, and Marc Hughes tops the comparative league from Great Orme.

August in the Midlands - Mini Leagues rebooted

After a great Excel spreadsheet failure in the sky there was a backlash (well mild irritation) amongst Midlands patchers that we had failed to update their scores for August. Please accept our apologies and here we right those wrongs with a reboot of the table.

We only received a handful of responses for August in the Midlands but the top 3 all made additions with Dave Roberts overhauling Richard Harbird. With just one species and six point between them this tussle could last until the year end. Nick Crouch extends his lead at the top with 15 species and points clear air between him and Dave.

Both Dave Roberts and Richard Harbird hit 100% in August in the comparative table but Alan Kydd stays outfront despite no additions during this period.

The mini-est mini league, Kinneal v Skinflats, Chris Pendlebury

Introducing Kinneil v Skinflats.

Everyone has surely heard of Kinneil and Skinflats, probably the Upper Forth's premier birding spots. Situated either site of the picturesque Grangemouth oil refinery, the two sites are on the upper part of the Forth Estuary. The estuary is still tidal up here, but we are way from the east coast. Both sites have 1 or 2 lagoons (Kinneil has 1, Skinflats has 2), surrounded by farmland and small amounts of woodland. Skinflats has the advantage of having more of a reedbed and a good patch of saltmarsh; Kinneil has the advantage of being slightly further the coast and tends to be better for September 'sea' watching.

For the Patchwork Challenge, I have taken on Kinneil and Graeme Garner has taken on Skinflats. This follows on from a challenge between us in 2012 to year list the Upper Forth region, which I won but by only one species. Up till now in 2013, I had been focussing on my other patch (around Dunblane, where I live), and GG had been away. So today (6th) was our Day 1.

I was out earlier in the day, setting GG an easy target of 40 1-pointer species. There wasn't really anything of note, other than the usual array of waders and duck (dunlin, know, both godwits, pintail, teal etc.). Targets for this time of year would include ring-billed gull (regular for several years now), green-winged teal (also previously regular), other rarer gulls, plus more regular things like scaup; I failed with all of these today!

It was then GG's turn, who scored big (in Upper Forth terms) with 2 ROCK PIPIT. This species isn't recorded in the region on an annual basis, and was an UF tick for Graeme (I've only seen the species once before, at Kinneil last year). He also had 2 2-pointers: merlin and whooper swan. GG left the site with a more respectable total of 53 species and 55 points. His other highlights included 50+ tree sparrow (plus lots of yellowhammer and reed buntings), and a couple of water rails squealing from the reedbed.

Kinneil v Skinflats will continue next weekend, or possibly during the week...

Ireland - probably the most competitive mini league!

The second post in our series introducing the patches takes us over the Irish Sea. Despite much moaning coming from Galley Head about how rare long-tailed tits are and that they deserve more than one point in Ireland (he see's thousands of Cory's per year, an easy six points so no sympathy!) a fantastic five patches have been submitted so far. All coastal, all with huge potential and good birds behind them this could be a close run thing, will it be a yank or gank year?

You can find the Galley Head patch here http://patchlistchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/p/patches.html and now to introduce the others, Tralee, Kilmore Quay, The Mullet and Blackditch. Below are the maps for Tralee and Blackditch. A nice mix there with two in the south west, one in the north west and two in the east coast. Good luck guys, I hope you get your long-tailed tits!


The Mullet local patch




Blackditch local patch

Tralee local patch



Norfolk - a mini league in the making?

This post is the first in a series as we start to introduce the patches to everyone. I thought I would start with the Norfolk patches for two reasons, firstly my patch is there and secondly 16 of the first 70 patches are from there. Now, I know what your thinking and that all the patches are from North Norfolk 'hot spots' but in truth there is a good mix of north and east coast patches as well as a few inland ones. We'll start in the north, Salthouse, Gramborough Hill, Felbrigg and Cromer all covered but no patches to the west of the north coast yet. Below are the patches of Salthouse and Cromer.


Cromer local patch

Salthouse local patch

The east coast is well represented with six entrants, although it only constitutes 3 patches. The Winterton collective have stuck to their parish which measured in just under the maximum allowed and there will be up to four of them competing there. Neighbouring either side of their patch will be a Sea Paling patch and my patch at Hemsby. The Winterton and Sea Palling patches are below, see the first post for the Hemsby patch.



Winterton local patch



Sea Palling local patch

And finally we have six inland patches, Thetford, Whitlingham CP, UEA, Thorpe Marshes, Syderstone and Mid-Yare. All are pretty varied and should have totally differnet lists, some relying on fresh water lakes and rivers and others on woodland, heaths and farmland. See the Whitlingham and Mid-Yare patches below.

Whitlingham CP local patch

Mid-Yare local patch

 So thats Norfolk for the moment but I'm sure there will be a few more patches before the months out.