Herts Patch Challenge

The weekend of the 23-24th April saw the Herts bird club organise a local patch challenge competition. Teams of between 1-4 people had 48 hours to see as many species of bird on their patch as possible with a points system in place for how scarce/rare the bird is and for seeing a certain amount of different species i.e waders or warblers.

My team consisted of myself with some help from Ben Miller. I was awake around 5am and upon checking my phone he’d messaged me about a Whimbrel and Greenshank he’d already noted! As it was I missed these two over the weekend.

I started at Marsworth reservoir where a Cuckoo was cuckooing by the reed bed. A Grasshopper Warbler was reeling from behind the reservoir, Sedge and Reed Warblers were heard and a drake Mandarin was tucked away almost from view. I then nipped over the road to Tringford where I immediately saw a Barn Owl at the far end of the dam. I was just about to get a photo when a jogger appeared from the woods and flushed it! A Green Sandpiper was also flushed by him. 

Over at Wilstone 4 Yellow Wagtail flew over, 3 Cattle Egret sat on one of the old shooting butts, a Dunlin flew towards the other water bodies and from the hide I found 3 Little Gulls and 2 Arctic Terns the latter of which didn’t hang around. A handful of other year ticks were seen dotted around and over at Pitstone Quarry 2 Little Ringed Plover and a Redshank were seen.

I then nipped into College Lake where a Ruff had been found earlier in the day but only for a year tick seeing as it’s just over the border in Bucks!

After 11 hours on site and having walked 21,000 steps I went home for a well deserved cuppa.

Sunday dawned and an unwell child meant that I couldn’t get on site until 2pm. News of a Garden Warbler saw me start off in the woods at Startops where I immediately heard it singing but it was typically elusive. A further 8 species were added over the next 5 or so hours including a nice Yellowhammer and a drake Garganey.

I finished the weekend having seen 90 species (1less than the St.Albans team) but I’d totalled 140 points which was 4 more than the Ver Valley team meaning that I finished as the winner! A tiring but enjoyable 2 days and with a tea mug and notebook as a prize!