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July round-up 2026

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Hello from the Patchwork Challenge team!   July was again generally fairly quiet, but like June did, it delivered a few birds of pure magic. There were also clear signs of autumn migration already taking place, with a trickle of waders being reported as well as passerines, including a good spread of Redstarts. The best bird however being a stunning Blue-cheeked Bee-eater that graced Papa Westray for a short while before touring round other parts of Orkney.  August is nearly over due to my severely delayed blog post, however, it is still in an incredibly enthralling month. Large falls of warblers can occur just about anywhere, and now is the time to be looking for flycatchers and Redstarts, particularly on inland patches in areas where they are unlikely to be otherwise than on migration. Whinchats and Wheatears fall into that same bracket too. Wader passage has kicked into at least second or third gear now, with juvenile waders joining in the throngs moving south and west. This...
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Tom Bedford's local patch - Lye Valley, Oxford

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This guest blog post is written by diligent patch birder Tom Bedford about his Lye Valley patch. A huge thank you to him for writing this excellent piece about his patch in deepest Oxford, which includes images of the patch as well as some of the excellent records he has gathered there over the years. It is also goes into brilliant detail about how watching visible migration means you can see anything almost anywhere! We hope you thoroughly enjoy reading it.  My local patch: the Lye Valley area, Oxford They say strength comes from adversity. But in my case, having fractured the neck of my femur during a half marathon in the spring of 2019, I gained a local patch. Being restricted to walking with crutches for a month, I began taking a daily limp from my house, a circular 4km walk through a couple of scrubby meadows, past an inner-city golf course and up through the small Lye Valley nature reserve. This nature reserve is a SSSI for rare plant species, and a boardwalk allows visitors ...
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Best Find Patchwork Challenge 2026 - January to June edition - WINNERS!

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Hello from the Patchwork Challenge team!  We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to submit a find for the spring Best Find Competition. Now, we would like to congratulate the three winners who came through the public vote with the majority of the public vote. These three winners will all  receive a Patchwork Challenge Pin Badge.  If you want to catch up on the submissions , then click this link .  First Place: The long-staying, singing male Great-tailed Grackle found by Jackie Binks at Garston Coastal Reserve and Oglet. Nearly 60% of voters had the Grackle as part of their favourite three. Well done Jackie, truly well deserved!   Second Place:   A male Common Redstart found by Tom Bedford  at his urban Lye Valley patch, he just nipped ahead of third place by a single vote! A wonderful submission, and very descriptive.  Third Place:  Wood Warbler found by Tyler Atkinson at Clifford Hill Gravel Pits finishe...
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June round-up 2026

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Hello from the Patchwork Challenge team! June was about average, and was probably the quietest month of the year so far for #PWC2026 but there were a few glimmers of excellence, and there was still a trickle of late spring drift migrants, particularly in the northern isles. Just one 10km patch in Shetland picked up four national rarities. Other stuff noted included the first of Britain Western Reef Heron in Conwy, Squacco Heron and Kentish Plover in Kent, Pacific Golden Plover and Pallid Swift in Yorkshire amongst a whole load of other stuff! July is an exciting month, and in the birding calendar is the start of autumn although as I write this a Green/Greenish Warbler has started to sing at Bempton, almost certainly an exceedingly late spring migrant?! Otherwise, things to expect this month are the returning waders, with good numbers of common waders on the move. Spotted Redshanks are early movers and they can be looking amazing in their summer plumage at this time of year. Black-ta...
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