Patchwork Challenge

Have you ever wondered what you could do with your patch birding records? Apart of course, from submitting them to Birdtrack and your county recorder... Take a leaf out of Shaun Robsons book (literally....) As he mentioned in an email to us, Shaun is 'a bit of an obsessive when it comes to my patch annual report'. He collates his records, alongside those of the many others who watch Lytchett bay in Dorset, to produce a detailed annotaded 'annual report', fascinating in its content and liberally scattered with photos and information gleaned from ringing. If you want to have a look at (or download) Shauns report then look HERE Thanks for sharing this with us Shaun. I wonder how many will be inspired to produce something similar? If anyone else has produced anything like this we'd love to showcase it here. Just let us know!

No! This is not an instant award for the finder of the Askernish gyr. Although they might well find themselves winning it! No self respecting patch birding competition is complete without a 'best find' competition. With 234 patches being birded hard throughout the country it's inevitable that now and then some good birds are going to be found. And it's only right that we celebrate the best of them. As such, we are delighted to announce 'The Meopta & Forest Optics Best Patch Find' competition. To inspire you Meopta & Forest Optics   have offered a winner's prize of a pair of  Meopta Meostar B1 10x42 HD binoculars (RRP £799). As we've stated somewhere, at some point down the line, we can't be waiting for the good men of the rarities committee to pronounce judgement (well, we could, but they're very busy and we'd be waiting a while). We'll take your word for it. And we'll give everyone else an opportunity to take your word...

James Spencer, Barmston It has been an incredible first month on the patch with some great birds and a few surprises. I managed 6 visits which is slightly modest but I was also taking part in the Foot It challenge so focused on that a little more initially. Despite this I dredged up 63 species, not too bad on a slightly barren bit of coastline in the lee of Flamborough. By far the headline bird and the one which has been attracting twitchers from across the county has been the first winter Kumlien's Gull which I relocated on my first visit (it had been seen a fortnight previously at the same location and in Bridlington). It is a subtle example with little barring but the dark markings spreading to both webs of the primaries appears to have some heavy backing by respected gullers on both sides of the pond. It is apparently the first twitchable example of this variable taxon for Yorkshire after a 1 day bird seen by a handful of observers plenty of years ago. The supporting ...

Balephuil, Isle of Tiree patch – January 2013                             John Bowler A wild month out this way, with frequent gales and rain, meant that good birding days were at a premium. Fortunately, the first couple of days of the month were quieter and allowed a good bash around the patch resulting in a total of 49 species. Mild conditions helped some usually scarce wintering passerines cling on in the patch including Dunnock, Pied Wagtail, Fieldfare, Goldfinch, Common Redpoll and Meadow Pipit, whilst a lone Jackdaw calling in flight over Loch a’ Phuill (13 th ) was completely unexpected, as this species is less than annual these days on the island. Other birds were harder to find and it took a few visits to pin down Water Rail, Woodcock, Redwing, Twite and Skylark, whilst Stonechat and Moorhen remain unseen. All of the six e...

Yvonne and Ian – January in Askernish Why the Patchwork Challenge? Well, I started off the year by declaring that in 2013 my new year’s resolution would be to bird longer and bird harder. When I heard about the Patchwork Challenge it fired my imagination and has given me the incentive to get off my butt, out from behind the computer screen and get out there. Ian and I have birded this patch since August 2010 and it’s great because it’s accessible from home and the 3 sq km includes a variety of habitat including our garden (and all the gardens in the township), crofts, lochs, golf course, dunes, beach and shore. Askernish I think Ian and I are in probably in competition with each other as much as anything! No doubt about it the bird of January (and probably the year!), for us, has to be the Gyr Falcon that turned up on the 10 th January, at least it hung around long enough for me to get out of the loo, cycle down the road, see it and for Ian to get some photos. Patch g...

There has been a couple of enquiries about who has the highest points per species ratio. So, never wanting to disappoint I decided to see who was top and where the high scoring birds were. Not really a surrise as the Scottish Islands and Ireland take up all the top 10 places, in fact they take up 15 of teh top 20 spots. Finding a Gyr falcon always helps gain a good points total and so it has proved in this table, Ian's 12 pointer giving him 1.396 points per species. The non-competitive Paul H isn't too far behind with 1.366 pts/sp followed by a fellow Orkadian patch, Alastair F on 1.314 pts/sp. Overall UK league Position Name Patch Species Points Pts per sp 1 Ian T Askernish 53 74 1.396226 2 Paul H Quoyangry 71 97 1.366197 3 Alastair F Birsay 35 46 1.314286 4 Gary Bell Sumburgh 51 67 1.313725 5 Dave Suddaby Blacksod 86 111 1.290698 ...