Yes indeedy, here is the inaugural competition for the gankiest full fat patch tick complete with an amayzing new trophy, courtesy of Royzah - herewith....
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| A black scoter, yesterday |
An initially scabby-looking juv schwan on the lake this evening raised its head and turned out to be a suddenly much less scabby looking Whopper Schwan. Tickage! Add to that a fine male Teal lurking in the reeds near the shoreline and that takes the new patch at Squince to 61 species... bang on the mythical 50.00%.
Majik!
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
So, here we are at the cusp of 2022, all portentous and laden with promise. For all of about a fortnight, after which year ticks become few and frustratingly far between as usual.
Or maybe not!
Because this year Seppy's incessant bleating about how shit my patch is finally pushed me over the edge, and I've adopted myself a brand new patch down on the coast. I'd like to introduce you all to Squince/Myross Island -- let's just call it Squince for short.
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| View from/of the new patch. |
Here it is on the Googly Maps yoke.
A fine coastal patch incorporating a lake, inlet/tidal estuary, tidal lagoon with marshy bits, gardens, small copses, farmland, etc., etc. In other words, bags of potential for that coastal birding shenanigans Seppy is always preaching about.
For a bit of geographical context... here's where it is in relation to Seppy's Galley Head patch and my current patch at The Mall. It's 12km as the chough flies from Galley, and 8km from the Mall.
I will of course keep checking The Mall (at least from the front garden) while Squince is "getting established", but so far, so good. Based on a target species list of 122 for the patch (arrived at using Seppy's stringent and ludicrously punitive "finger in the air" criteria), things are off to a cracking start with two trips down to Squince so far yielding 56 species or 45.90%. That puts it in second place so far behind... drumroll... The Mall, where a few casual glances from the front garden and one quick look at the lake has netted 37 species or 47.23%.
FFS!
That said, I suspect Squince has more staying power in terms of year ticks than The Mall, so might hold my interest a tad longer, and being in first and second place simultaneously is quite novel. There have been a few records of rares from Squince over the years, but as far as I know nobody checks it regularly. It's seriously underwatched, which, of course, is unlikely to change, but it does mean I might inadvertently blunder into something good when I am down there.
The downsides? Well, it's a drive away (about 12 minutes -- 16 if I stop in the garage to pick up a breakfast roll on the way), so I can't just roll out of bed and look for year ticks from the jax window. That might also mean I check it less often than I should, and will miss heaps. The other problem is that it gets gulls (ewwww) and waders (urrrrrghhhhh) and is likely to involve a degree of seawatching at some point *SIGH*.
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| Waderly shenanigans: Seppy was doing his damndest to encourage me to string this Common Sand into a Spotted on 01 Jan (presumably so he could call a Stewards Enquiry and ban me from the competition at a later date, the cad) |
So there we have it... a new year, a new patch and all to play for. Same old (shit) birder though. Ah well... them's the breaks I guess.
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| Some scores,yesterday |
What a struggle 2021 was; visit after visit of tedium and no rewards. A hand full of full fat patch ticks included a little grebe, marsh harrier and spotted redshank. A lack of migrants in either spring or autumn left big gaps in the annual totals with not even a yellow-browed warbler gracing any of the patch bushes.
The year ended on 110 species and 91.67%
Thankfully, tomorrow we all start again.
Well done to Derek Nimmo for winning the mallard and congrats to Seppy for finding a bucketful of quality birds this year (...again). A blackpoll on your patch is always going to win you Ol' snowy (...again).
Happy days and a Happy New Year.
Bushveld
Evening all, just back from a couple of comedy recording session in the US, but managed to sneak in a few more species to smash the patch year record round here. Previously this had stood at 127 species, but I've come in with a resounding 131. In real money that's 116.27%.
The list of birds is long and glorious, including three full fat patch ticks (Black-necked Grebe, Iceland Gull and Quail), and loads of birds which are not annual (Woodlark, Yellowhammer, Osprey, Marsh Harrier, White-fronted Goose, Goosander, Kittiwake, Golden Plover, Rook, Oystercatcher, Whimbrel, Curlew, Nightingale, Cuckoo, Raven, Great White Egret and Wryneck)
I found the Wryneck as it happens, a glorious patch bird here in London, albeit only just about middling compared to the mighty east coast and cheeky south-west headlands. I doubt it will be enough to send Ol' Snowy southbound. But whilst I can't compete on the rarity front, in absolute terms I have had a belter.
The final two species, #130 and #131, were very speshul indeed, both rare waterfowl and one-day wonders that I had to twitch in a big hurry. The first were a pair of Mandalorian Duck in late November, far less than annual here as they rarely wander from their stronghold of Epping Forest about ten miles away, as evidenced by this being only my fourth record in nearly 17 years of watching the patch. And then last week just before I had to nip to America again a Red-crested Pochard rocked up. There are breeding populations in the south-east and they're perfectly acceptable here even if they do sometimes look like absolute duffers. This is also really rare here, my fifth record ever, and was a patch tick for quite a few of the guys. So if these two are the ones that eventually land the Golden Mallard, itself a perfectly kosher species, I think that would be quite apt. Ideal actually. And then I could tick it on Jan 1st for a headstart. Oh wait I forgot, it won't actually get sent until about May or June.
I would just like to thank Covid for making this possible. And dedication obviously. Without being able to go to the recording studio or radio theatre very much, and with travel being such a pain in the backside, I've spent almost the whole year at home. So have all the rest of the birders that watch the patch, and this is the result. Almost everyone has bettered their previous high scores, and the overall patch list reached the dizzy heights of 145. So to Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron - hats off to ya!
