And the winner is....

 Yes indeedy, the votes have finally all been casted and counted. and then the IP addresses were all checked and all Basil's childish prankster gangster votes have been kicked oot, leaving the following final votes:

In joint last place, with zero votes - Basil's Fea's-type petrel and the Proclaimers unidentified Been Goose species

In 4th place, with one novelty vote (from Basil) - Pheasant

In 3rd place, with two votes - Lesser Scaup

In 2nd place, with a whopping (but not whopping enuff) three votes - Seppy's amazeballs Western Subalpine Warbler!

Alas, and alack however, there can only be one winner, and even though its probly not even all that rare in kentish circles, all the northern and south-western gimps on here who didnt vote for pheasant, voted for Shakey's Dartford Warbler!!!! So with a whopping five (count 'em again), that's five votes, Shakey wins Old New Snowy for only his second time, after that well dodgy released Great Bustard "in off" a few years back. Congrats to Shakey, and hopefully Old New Snowy will be winging its merry way to Folkestone before the year is out....

Old New Snowy in his rightful habitat - he'll be back in 2024....

Best Patch Find 2022

 Yes indeedy, it has been decreed that there is no obvious outright winner for the best patch find this year and so for the first time in ages we will have to endure the misery of a public vote. No doubt the usual suspect will do his best to b*gg*r up the results but such is life. Remember, as always, the voting question is "which of these species would you most like to find on your patch?" 

So, the runners and riders in no particular order are featured below:

In One - Shakey reckons Dartford Warbler was his best patch find at Da Cleefs but what say you?

In Two - Basil weighs in with a quality find in the form of a female Lesser Scaup, but is it glamourous enough to win?

One of these ducks is apparently a lesser scaup but not shure which one....

In Three - They didn't even bother to ID it to species level, so can the Proclaimer's claim of Bean Goose be a serious contender?

In Four - Big Royzah stumbled across a Rosefinch as his best patch find on the Don, but does it blow your trumpet?

In Five - The only serious contender really, and a kwality score for Seppy at Galley Head - you really should be voting for Western Subalpine Warbler

Vote for me please

In Six - He really shouldn't get two cracks at it, but Basil's two Fea's-type Petrels off Squince beats the pants off Lesser Scaup so we'd best include it really

Basil celebrates his big find

In Seven - ahem, well, poor Derek didn't want to be left out but Pheasant is the best he could come up with - it wasnt even a full fat patch tick so there's very little* chance of this winning, no matter how many votes it gets

So thats it - the remaining riders didn't feel their efforts were worthy enuff to enter a contender - so be it - better luck next year.

To cast your vote, simply click here

 *Pheasant will not win - use your vote elsewhere!

The 'polls for Ol' Snowy have now closed

With the gank Golden Mallard the post and on its way to C lister Derek Nimmo, we must consider where Ol' Snowy will pass the year. There can be only one winner, and rather than endure another 'vote' the consensus is that Seppy takes the prize for Blackpoll warbler. This victory must be all the sweeter for him this year as he actually managed to identify the winning bird himself. So with four in a row, and Ol' Snowy stays put at Seppy's gaff beside all the piles of used bank notes in brown envelopes. It would be good if Seppy could stay at home this year to give the rest of us a chance, otherwise next year we'll be awarding Ol' Snowy to the second-best find of the year. But well done Seppy who saves himself postage, and the rest of us need to up our game a bit. Roll on 2022.

The winning Blackpoll warbler in October

#FourInARow

And the winner is...

The votes are in, counted, re counted and checked again because you just can't be too safe, and we have a winner. Bonaparte's gull has taken Ol' Snowy for Seppy at Galley. This also means that Ol' Snowy remains at Galley for the third year (FFS), saving anyone a trip to the post office. Bonaparte's gull is no stranger to winning either, having previously won on Blackdog in the days before Statto was driven south. 

Some votes yesterday

Thanks to everyone who voted, although some of you do need to get out more (would rather find a quail over a Baird's sandpiper or a Blyth's reed warbler?) We specially thank those who voted two or even three times - you know who you are, and we've a fair idea too...  #StopTheCount