South Coast Minileague - January

Andy Johnson leads the way with 91 species and 111 points, 19 points clear of Adam Faiers in second place in Sandwich Bay. Mark Lawlor, on Guernsey rounds off the top three a further 15 points behind. A couple of patches have notched Glaucous Gull and Great Northern Diver but the highlight this month is Mark Lawlor's adult Kumlien's Gull, a cracker indeed.

With only four competitors this is one of the smaller comparative minileagues. Adam Faiers leads with 57.9% in January with Mark Lawlor in second on 53.8%. Andy Johnson's monster score for 2013 will make it tough to emulate in 2014 and at present he is on 36.6%.

Coastal Scotland Minileague - January

Two of the Coastal Scotland big hitters from 2013 head up the table for January with Paul Higson at Quoyangry holding a single point lead over last years winner John Bowler on Tiree on 105 and 104 points respectively. Another islander, Peter Donnelly on North Ronaldsay comes in third. The highest placed mainland patch is Dan Brown's at Dunnet Head in Caithness with 94 points in fourth. There were some decent birds in this Minileague with perhaps the highest quotient of scarce but without any real rarities. White-billed Diver on South Ronaldsay made it on to a couple of patch lists and a Green-winged Teal was on Tiree for John Bowler. 3 Glossy Ibis were at Balivanich for Stuart Taylor and there were a scattering of Little Auks for several patchers. Bits of patch gold included a Kingfisher in Caithness for Dan Brown - the third record in the last 20 years apparently and John Bowlers first winter record of Ruff at Balephuil.

Chris Hill at Burntisland leads the way in the comparative table but with 0.6% covering the podium places. Bryan Rains in South-west Mull is in second with Yvonne B at Askernish in third place. With plenty of entrants in the comparative table this is one that will be interesting throughout, especially when spring gets going and the big hitters start accruing some serious points.

Inland Scotland Minileague - January

Alastair Forsyth is top of the tree at Old Nisthouse and deservedly so after finding the best bird of January, a drake Blue-winged Teal. Chris Pendlebury has had an excellent start at Dunblane and is in second but a full twelve points back. Last years winner of the Inland Scotland minileague, Graeme Garner, is in third on his new patch, Cambus.  Aside from Alastair's Teal there was little else to shout about finds wise with species such as Woodcock, Jack Snipe and Merlin featuring in the highlights.

Everybody is in the same order in the combined table with Alastair top on 68.75%. Less than 2% back is Chris P and then Andy Dowse at Comrie in third with 56.8%.

Coastal East Anglia Minileague - January

Tim Hodge not only leads the way in the coastal East Anglia mini league but is the national front runner too. Not only that he has an impressive BirdTrack record so far too! Its a close fight for second and third as north coast Norfolk ties with east coast Suffolk. Best find so far this month has to go to Tommy Corcoran when he stumbled across a Glossy Ibis in a park in Great Yarmouth, a very handy 12 points early in the year. Gary Elton also had a nice find in the shape of a Black Brant while skuas and grebes comprised of many of the other highlights in the region, while Richard Moores found an unseasonal Black Restart at Happisburgh.

Gary White, prize winner from PWC2013, leads the comparative league at this early stage as he approaches 50%. I'm sure this league will see many changes in the coming months, especially a fall from 2nd for Hemsby. A cold snap, or spring would be very welcome to most of us I'm sure you will all agree!

Inland East Anglia Minileague - January

The inland East Anglia mini league is led by two PWC2013 big hitters as Jamie Wells and Ben Lewis lead the way again, both breaking the 100 point barrier already. Jamie leads by 7 points, thanks in part to finding a Great White Egret, a very handy 6 points. Highlights had the usual wintery feel with wildfowl and divers mentioned on several patches and Mealy Redpolls a welcome find for Nick Moran and Nick Robinson. Ben Rackshaw may be a newcomer but he has had a great start to PWC with two patch ticks, Scaup and Water Rail.

Not so easy for Ben and Jamie in the comparative table as there great 2013 see's them playing catch up this year. Mark Nowers has had a great January and already past 70% with Steve Swinney and Nick Watmough not too far behind in the top 3. The next 9 patches are separated by less than 10% so I can see this being another league to keep a close eye on as the year marches on....

Midlands Minileague - January

The midlands mini league this year is hardly mini as an impressive 38 patches have been entered, 23 of which have entered scores for January. The top three positions are held by PWC newcomers, Ian Cowgill at Lound sets the pace as he clocked up 99 species and the only 100+ points score. Fellow new comers John Hopper and Andy Mackay aren't too far back.

Although there only 5 comparative competitors this year it looks like it will be a cracking league as 5 are seperated by less that 7%. The race for the top spot is currently held by Dave Roberts by a mere 0.05% from Nick Self. It should be a geat league to keep an eye on throughout the year.

London Minileague - January

Nick Croft at Rainham and Adam Bassett at Little Marlow head up the London minileague, tied on 89 points. Nick even manages to sneak third at Wanstead. Highlights around the capital were few and far between with Water Rail and Peregrine at the top of a small looking pile.

Jason Reynold's flying start has him top of the London comparative league with 67.7%. 1.9% seperates 2nd-5th with Tom Stevenson and Michael Terry falling in the top 3 in second and third respectively.