The birding fraternity has seen a shift in attitudes recently, with many birders turning their attention from twitching towards rarity finding. As a result, there also seems to have been an upturn in the profile watching a local patch. The advantages of watching a local patch are obvious. Low fuel costs and travel time aside, great pleasure can be derived from getting to learn a place inside out, observing how the seasons change, and getting value from common species that otherwise wouldn’t get a second glance. Throw in the potential for the odd rare bird or scarcity and to me, you have a really exciting, involving way to enjoy your birding. So what could enhance the patch watchers enjoyment a little? Well, perhaps adding an element of competition would do the trick. We’re a competitive bunch, us birders, both with our peers and ‘internally’ as well. We like a gloat, we like to add things to lists, and we like to know what the numbers are. So why not see if we can add a ...
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 ...
The time has finally arrived, the PWC admin team can finally introduce the new website: http://patchworkchallenge.com/index.php Here is a quick run through on how to set up your patch and add sightings. Homepage Above is the homepage where you can find the mini leagues, latest sightings etc. Registering To register go to 'Account' on the tool bar and click on Register on the drop down menu. This will take you to the page below. Registration page Enter your details and tick the I'm not a robot box (even if you are a robot :-)). You will then be taken back to the homepage. Go back to 'Account' on the toolbar and click on Login on the drop down. It will take you to this page below Login Enter your user name and password and you will arrive at your very own homepage where you can add your patch then your sightings. Users homepage Click on User settings to register your patch You will come to this page below: ...
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