2024 Patchwork Challenge Wrap Up

As we come to the end of January, we can take a look at the 2024 scores, with a Youtube video coming soon going into detail about the round up too. A massive thank you to everyone that took part, and we really hope you sign up again for this year's competition. 

Coastal East England 10km: Congratulations to Sam Goddard at Gibraltar Point NNR for winning with 414 points, with Nige Lound coming second at the same site. James Brown came third at Hopton, with Dartford Warbler being the highlight.

Coastal East England: Jacob Spinks came first, with a massive total of 472 points of 234 species; with Spurn Observatory getting the top three spots! Although two of those competitors won't be competing there this year, with those Charlotte and Jacob's highlight of the autumn being finding a Red-flanked Bluetail. Mark Andrews had a brilliant July having Gull-billed Tern and Black-winged Pratincole from the garden, while Trevor Girling at a close fourth at Titchwell RSPB found both Hume's Warbler and Long-billed Dowitcher. 

 

Coastal Ireland and Ireland 10K: Only two competitors from Ireland this year but RSPB WoW, Victoria Park and Kinnegar placing first with 120 species. 

Coastal Scotland 10km: Well done to Rob Hughes placing 1st in Nybster, Caithness with 156 species including American Wigeon; Calum Scott in Aberlady placing 2nd with 141 species including White-rumped Sandpiper, Osprey and Baird's Sandpiper and Julian Smith placing 3rd with 140 species.

Coastal Scotland: In first place we have Andrew Whewell with his patch at North Berwick East, just pipping the top spot with 189 points. Andrew Whitehouse at Girdle Ness and Torry came a very close second, finishing on 188 points getting Surf Scoter and Little Egret in the latter part of the autumn, while in third place we have Rob Hughes, Nybster Caithness. Well done to you all! Some fantastic species highlights in this mini-league, including Surf Scoter, Great Shearwater, White-rumped and Baird's Sandpiper and Ring-necked Duck.

Coastal South England 10km: Congratulations to Amy Robjohns in 1st place with 183 species in Fareham/Gosport+ area, some excellent highlights including Long-tailed Duck and White-winged Tern. Bob Ford placed 2nd with 209 points and Spotted Crake and Honey Buzzard at his patch in Weymouth.

Coastal South England: Ryan Irvine takes 1st place with 250 points in St Buryan. Only 10 points behind with a 119% comparative score we have Kevin Rylands at Dawlish Warren and then Amy Robjohns in 3rd with  at Titchfield Haven & Hill Head. Some great species including Green-winged Teal, Dusky Warbler, Goshawk and Purple Heron.

Coastal Wales and Coastal Wales 10km: Only 3 Welsh patches with Alex Jones taking 1st place for both 3km and 10km in River Clwyd, Rhyl and Broughton. Some patch megas from Peter Howlett in the form of Velvet Scoter, Red-breasted Merganser and Shag.

Coastal West England: Some excellent highlights from Paul Bate in Highbridge & Burnham-on-sea, taking him into 1st place with 155 species including Purple Heron, Ring Ouzel, Snow Bunting, Yellow-browed Warbler and Hawfinch. Lots of space for competition in Coastal West with only 3 competitors.

Estuarine and Estuarine 10km: The winner of this category, Peter Hazelwood came out top at Oldbury Power Station with 157 species, including a self-found Richard's Pipit while Toby Collett at Frampton Marsh came second.

Inland North: Congratulations to Duncan Bye at Wheldrake Ings with 205 points for coming first, topping their previous score at 105.6%. Ben Moyes, at Swillington Ings, came second while another competitor for Wheldrake Ings Adam Firth, came third with highlights of White Stork and Whinchat. Ciaran Rowett had plenty of great highlights including Curlew Sandpiper, Black-necked Grebe, Pectoral Sandpiper, Ruddy Shelduck and Snow Goose.

Inland North 10km: Adam Firth in Evlington comes in top of the table with 205 points, Ben Moyes at Swillington Ings takes 2nd place with and Tom Shields in Nottingham Trent Valley places 3rd. Patch highlights for Inland North including Grasshopper Warbler, Marsh Harrier, Tree Pipit and Mandarin Duck.

Inland Scotland 10km and Inland Scotland: Mike Hodgkin had a very good year comparatively at Penicuik with 26% up. A handful of Inland Scotland patches, with Alex Ash in Kilmalcom getting plenty of patch gold birds with Redshank, Shoveler and Grey Plover all being patch firsts. Lee Hesp coming second at Strathyre getting December Whooper Swans.

Inland South 10km: Joe Parham came first, having a brilliant year comparatively with a whopping 44% higher. Dave Helliar came second, also above comparative, with highlights including Yellow-browed Warbler. Andy Sims in Boultham Mere/Swanpool area came close third with an excellent comparative score of 15%. Steve Lister in fourth had a patch and county tick Ring-necked Parakeet. 

Inland South: Ryan Irvine at inland St Buryan came first, with a total of 208 points. Comparatively down over 7%. Pete Sofley at Ladywalk Nature Reserve in Warwickshire came second, with plenty of good autumn highlights including a patch gold Tundra Bean Goose being the first site record. Geoff Wyatt at Day's Lock came third, scoring comparatively the same as previous! In the meantime patch ticking Knot. Matthew Dick and Steve Atkinson scored the same points with 159. Matthew at Lakenheath having a thousand Whooper Swans roosting on patch being a record count, while Steve at Middle Tame having plenty of goodies with Red-necked Phalarope, Little Stint, Pectoral Sandpiper and Black-necked Grebe.

While lower in the lower in the league there was still some great records to be had. Neil Burt having plenty of highlights for the autumn on his Kent patch while Tom Bedford had four Whooper Swans in Lye Valley, this being a second patch record for a site with no water! While Rob Pople getting a patch tick in the form of a Raven. 

Inland Wales 10km:

Islands 10km: A very interesting mini-league with a very tight, pretty much photo finish! Between Bruce Taylor on Barra and John Bowler on Tiree, both having some great highlights. Bruce, pipping the top spot with 297 points, having three Ring-necked Ducks, two American Golden Plover, two White-rumped Sandpiper, thousands of Great Shearwaters, and Barra's first Cattle Egret! While John on 296 points had Cory's Shearwater, two American Golden Plovers and a Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Steve Dudley from Westray came third, following the trend with more Great Shearwaters, with them being the second island record onward. A Smew there was the first island record since 2013.

Islands: David Parnaby on Fair Isle came out top on this mini-league with 346 points, which included some obvious Fair Isle quality in the form of finding Marmora's Warbler, and also seeing Tennessee Warbler. John Blower on Tiree, who came second, had a patch gold bird in the form of Carrion Crow. Other highlights included Barred Warbler, Great Shearwaters, Leach's Petrel and Grey Phalarope. Bruce came third in this league, with the first Cattle Egret for Barra getting on his 3km patch as well as thousands of Great Shearwater. 

Netherlands 10km and Netherlands:

Overall Scores:

Overall Top 10, 10km:

Green Top 10: 

Overall Top 10:

Comparative Top 10:

Again, thank you for taking part and congratulations to all the mini-league winners.

If you haven't already signed up for 2025, follow this link:

PWC2025 Sign Up Here

We really hope you to decide to take part in #PWC2025 and enjoy reaping the benefits of birding your patch. Good luck!

Patchwork Challenge 2025!

This year's Patchwork Challenge is up and running! We will be running monthly updates on here, and an overview of last years competition will be coming soon too. If you haven't signed up already, then you can do so by following this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rQvYe7lP2G-zrVqyb43jN0tTmGQ28Ouf4OZMX0XGAF0/edit?usp=sharing - if you have any issues with getting set up or have any questions or even anything we can improve on, then don't hesitate to get in touch via email. 

There are so many benefits to patch birding. There is a great feeling of reward at watching your local patch, this by either noticing the first summer migrants of the year, getting good counts or by finding something locally good. There is no better feeling than finding something good on your patch, after hours of hard work and when that is finally paid off there is an immense feeling of excitement and joy.  Also, why not make your birding on patch this year count towards local bird records, by using either Birdtrack or eBird, or submitting them directly to your local county recorder. Every record counts to them!

Best of luck, we hope that 2025 is a busy birding year for everyone! Watch this space for more updates soon! 

Patchwork Challenge team

Green-winged Teal (taken by Thomas Willoughby)