Foot It stat attack

As Foot It merges seamlessly into the Patchwork Challenge, I thought I'd do a quick summary of where I'd got to by the end of January... in part to ensure that I'm not slacking off now that Foot It is officially a week behind us!

Having access to the full BirdTrack database turned out to be quite useful because it took me seconds to work out how many 'accounted for' hours I've put in so far (I always record a start and finish time for my lists). Species accumulation was just as easy, using the Explore My Records tool:

These patch stats don't quite tally up with my Foot It total of 81, thanks to pesky Waxwings! I walked/ran for a flock within my Foot It radius in January, only to discover that whilst they were safely Foot It'd, they were actually 430m outside my predefined Patchwork Challenge area! That slight hiccup was rectified when a/the flock appeared 'on patch' last week... though conversely, I got a lift in a colleague's car to see them in a coffee break (shame on me).

Anyway, 40 hours 'on patch' by the end of January was a reasonable effort, when a full-time job and a 3½ year old are factored in. Species accumulation flat-lined in mid January, despite my effort remaining fairly constant. Needless to say, a Bittern (the first since January 2011) turned up within a day or two of the end of January!

Thanks again to Mark and everyone who was involved this year - great fun!

Austria 88%

Hello,

I got a (or two) male Pheaseants a week ago. Those birds brought my totals to 46 out of 50 species (88%). I did not get:
Mallard (probably a lot rarer than I thought here in winter)
Kestrel (probably rare because of the snow)
Willow Tit  (everytime very rare)
Lesser Redpoll (everytime very rare)
Crossbill (everytime very rare)

I walked about 35km, which is not really impressing. Must admit that I could have been doing more walks. But weather was most of the time really awful and 35 cm snow is not nice...

A species I probably missed was Stock Dove (which was not on my list). Had a possible flyover during the foot it time and yesterday at the same spot I had two in display flights...

I made a collage of photos taken during my foot it walks. Red are birds a predicted and missed, green are birds I actually saw but did not manage to take a photo of it. (Just realised that I have forgotten to take pics of Hawfinch and Siskin which are every day in the garden..). Sorry for the bad image quality - just record shots (or worse):

But to sum up it was a good challenge and great fun. Seen a few new places in my local area and learnt more about the birds in it. Looking forward to another challenge and a better result than place 74 ;) !

Greetings from Austria
Martin

http://www.birdingsuanjak.blogspot.co.at/

Newtonhill, NE Scotland

A last minute dash round at night to pick up Tawny Owl was a dismal failure, so I ended up on 69/70. 

Treecreeper and GS Wood have both appeared in the first days of Feb from somewhere.  I'm extending my footit for the whole year and going for 145.

Guernsey

With a cancelled meeting on the final day in January, I managed to have a quick final run out to the Garenne NR and was chuffed to see both Bullfinch and Siskin during the final hour of daylight in the month. This gives me 76 out of 80 and 95%. The species list is shown beow.

I am very pleased with my total as it shows that I made a suitable target to aim for, which wasn't too ambitious or too low. I am totally sure that if I had more time to get out birding that I would have easily made 100%. I have enjoyed reading the accounts of everyone's local birding exploits, but at the same time it makes me jealous, hearing about the full-days in the field, the daily walks and the mammoth treks. Perhaps in the future when the kids are older I may be able to do such things.

Adding up my time in the field during my Foot It walks makes approx 12 hours. And with all my birds being seen within a mile of the house, that gives me 6.3 bpmph (birds per mile per hour).

Foot It dips

Not being able to bird the home patch during the week, with it being dark before and after work, I'd had to suffer Louise's reports of a likely Buzzard during the January Foot It period. Yeserday she'd claimed Brambling and Merlin (both absent from my Foot It list) so I wasn't that surprised to find a host of Brambling under the feeders this morning. Somewhat more galling was the Song Thrush which was pretty much the first bird I saw when I stepped out and about this morning. Brambling and Song Thrush would have got me past Andy Cs 107% Will try harder next year.

Fortunately or unfortunately the Gyr is not visible from the garden, just a tad too far off with a hill in the way.

I Don’t Belieeeve It!

My Foot It score finished on the same total it had been stuck on for a week – 58 out of my target of 63. With hindsight my target was a little over-optimistic, although had I had more time I probably could have reached it. I said originally that there were ‘55 species I couldn’t fail to see’; well in the event I did fail to see three of them – Red-legged Partridge, Raven and Lesser Redpoll, and didn’t see enough of my possibles and probables to get me to the 100% mark.

Now, I was fully prepared to see birds this month that I hadn’t managed to find in January, but did anyone else have TWO ‘would have been Foot It ticks’ on the 1st of February?!

The first one wasn’t actually that galling, as it was a house tick, and the first one I’ve ever seen within my 2.5 mile home radius – a Red Kite flying over in the morning, bringing my house list to a nice round 90 (in just under 5 years here). Would’ve been a very nice, and unexpected, addition to the January list though!

The second one was extremely galling, and entirely my fault. Over the last month I’ve got into the habit of having a look out of the attic window most days, just in case the local Ravens happened to be showing. Of course I didn’t see them at all in January, but yesterday afternoon during a break from painting I went up to the attic, looked through the scope, and there they were, sailing around in the distance as if they’d been doing that every day for the last month. I’m sure I could hear them laughing at me.

And The Winner Is.......

Well that's it and I have to admit I feel a bit sad - like when I'm wandering around South Mainland Shetland 4 or 5 hours before my flight home - sniff! Initially, I was sceptical about starting this whole thing and feared that a multi-author blog might turn all a bit too 'Bird Forum' (where incidentally Foot It gets barely a mention). But it hasn't it's been a real eye-opener, real birders doing real birding and some of the friendliest birders I've ever come across.

So who were the winners? Well in the style of a primary school sports day we were all winners and should give ourselves a well deserved pat on the back. We got off our post Christmas lardy backsides and walked, walked like some of us have never walked before. Birded areas we've probably never looked at before, submitted in excess of 6,000 records to Birdtrack, spent less money on fuel (I went 4 weeks between fill-ups) and generally had a great time (I hope).

For me some real stars shone out Mark Smithson, who despite a disability managed 100%, Jonny Rankin for his heavily edited (thanks Nick) posts but more impressive rancid looking blistered feet and he just kept going. In fact everyone who took place was a star. A whole month of blogging and no bitchiness, nasty comments or spoof totals (assuming Simon Chadwick does exist ;-) ).

The targets were more a personal thing to give us all the incentive to keep pushing and I honestly didn't expect to see 92 species but I desperately wanted to see 100 and next year I will.

So congratulations to Simon Chadwick who regardless of scoring the highest percentage also saw the most species.  Simon based his target on his last few year January's, where he's actually seen an average of 85 species when using the car. Matthew Bruce gave Simon a run for his money in the latter stages almost toppling him earlier this week. Mike Pennington kept plugging away in the very far north and with a good few hours daylight less than the rest of us and managed an impressive Shetland total. Zac Hinchliffe should be congratulated for increasing his target voluntarily with just 10 days left and to a full 10 species more than his fellow North Wales participants, his previous target would have ensured a landslide victory. Special thanks to the three Europeans Col in Ireland, Janneke of Holland and Martin in Austria who despite no fellow countrymen/women still rose to the challenge. It seems that the Dutch have picked up on this and are running a Foot It challenge throughout February, perhaps it won't be long before it's embraced internationally?

So that's it until next year.  Given the popularity this year I hope to run the challenge every January. Many birders have asked me if I'll keep the blog open, as they'd like to carry on throughout the year. That's a great idea and I'm happy to let it carry on for those that want to.

Others have asked if I'll run an April challenge? I really don't have the time to run one this spring but as a compromise I propose to run a 24 hour Foot It on the 4th May.  Further details will appear on the blog and on Twitter in due course.

Thanks to everyone who's taken place, posted on the blog, on Twitter and anywhere else and of course thanks to Martin and Tom for the daft conversation that started all this.

Until next time.

Best wishes

Mark

The other side of Rotherham Final Update

    A Green Sandpiper at Silverwood Lagoon early morning on Monday was a welcome bonus, but since then I have managed nothing else new, with the howling SW wind and frequent heavy downpours hardly being favourable for birding, so my final Foot It total is 90 (target 82). I'm more than happy with that, and have seen everything that my area had to offer during the month, with Shoveler being the only expected species that I failed to find. Although nothing unusual turned up, over two hundred hours spent in the field and 170 miles walked produced some excellent local birds, including Whooper Swan, Shelduck, Pintail, Goldeneye, Water Rail, Golden Plover, Jack Snipe, Woodcock, Green Sandpiper, Barn Owl, Waxwing and Brambling, with the highlight being the first long-staying Short-eared Owls on my local patch for four years.

   Foot It may have finished, but my local patch watching certainly hasn't, and I shall continue to make the twice daily walk from my house to Silverwood Lagoon and the surrounding area, usually seeing the totally expected, but knowing that just sometimes something a little out of the ordinary will be waiting for me.

Silverwood Lagoon: just a big puddle really, but since 2007 it has produced Grey Phalarope,Black-necked Grebe, Red-necked Grebe, drake Smew and Common Scoter. The reedbeds await their first Bittern.                                                                     

11 months left

Having kept an 'On foot from home' list for several years & having a few other patch stalwarts do very little birding away from the patch, we have a very good idea of what to expect.

I set myself a nice big fat 100 as target, for my inland area in NE England, with an option to trail across to the rather uninspiring stretch of coast with the chance of bumping it up to 110.

Winter birding is always my favourite, but this year was rather average, - scarce but regular visitors like Mandarin, Chiffchaff, Bittern, Green Woody & Hen Harrier were missing, with very few surprises other than a Long-tailed Duck.
All 5 owls were usual ( have seen all 5 on NYD in recent years), but i couldnt find a single white winged gull  (last year i footed & found a Kumliens, Yellow-legged, Glauc, Iceland & Med)

Selection of species seen included :- Corn Bunting, Crossbill,  6 Tits, Green Sand, Jack Snipe, Peregrine, Water Rail, Stonechat, Grey Partridge, Whooper Swan.

In the end clocked up 192 miles (308.9km) - including 1.5 mile taking the bairn each way to school & back.

couldnt have been closer to making the inland ton....finished on 99 but saw more than i expected on my 22 mile trip to the coast bumping it up to 111 ( In total 1 more species than i expected ).

Ive enjoyed reading the updates, especially those giving birding on foot a try for the first time & the 'heed-tha ball' with the bloodied heels !

Hope you all keep footing it for the rest of the year ( or maybe try a May foot it bird race....? )

Foot it taken up by the Dutch.

Yay!, The Foot is challenge may been taken up by the Dutch Birding Association. Tomorrow is the anual winter meeting, and some of us are proposing to make february Dutch Foot it month... I'll keep you posted on te progress

Final days - one success and two fails

I hadn't expected any foot it ticks this week due to work, however with the evenings becoming lighter I saw the chance of bagging a late bonus bird in the form of a pair of Eider offshore at Penrhyn Bay. Pinned down by fellow foot it competitor Julian Hughes, I located the birds by car on the way home from work before pegging it down to the beach in the impending gloom to pick up my 98 foot it bird.

Yesterday though I ran out of time and light. As I always do, I checked the flooded fields on my way into work - bingo! A smart winter Ruff; my first in the area. The only problem was I was watching from the car window. Unfortunately a busy day at work and no chance of getting home and walking down to see it. During the evening a smart picture of a Little Auk appeared on Birdguides, taken just a few minutes from my front door - gutted. If only I'd had the day off on the last day of the month, that 100 barrier would have been broken.

Oh well! Next years target? ......100 species of course :-)
Thanks for a great idea and a good fun month - well done organisers and fellow foot it competitors.

Quarff Final Score

Black-headed Gull has been the only addition putting me on 57 out of a predicted 55 so a final score of 102.

Croy Grand Finale

My last update was on the 19^th & I was on 69/80, since then it’s been one surprise after another.

Quick dog walk on the 21^st in the rain & couldn’t believe my ears when a grey wagtail gave its self away flying overhead, a bird I’ve only seen locally a couple of times & always in the summer. Dancing in the rain time!

Working away for the next few days & next Foot it tick came when I was least expecting it on the 26^th, doing some DIY in the garden & I was interrupted by the distinctive “kronk” of a Raven, looked up & there it was a bird I’ve only seen once in my local area before!

Sunday 27^th and my last chance to really make an assault on my target & with 9species still to go it meant not just a slog to the coast but to ensure a good selection of ticks I wanted to walk to my local patch, Whiteness Head, for the first time ever a round trip of 15+ miles. I set off at first light, the first 5miles were uneventful and despite scanning through large flocks of grey geese nothing but pinkies & Greylags. 

Just a few geese

Carried on walking towards Ardersier & part of the mixed finch & bunting flock from the previous weekend were still around although I still couldn’t pull out a Corn Bunting.

As I approached the MOD ground at Whiteness I was greeted by the biggest surprise of all, a total MEGA for the area & a bird I’d not seen anywhere near home before…a Magpie! 

MOD Magpie spot

Buzzing from this flyby four Jays took off from the edge of the wood, two ticks within seconds, I carried on to the coast, the tide was already high & from the lack of birds in the bay I guessed there had been some recent disturbance but a lonely pair of Shelduck added one more. Due to the lack of birds here it meant walking even further to find the roost, at the end of the spit itself, unfortunately the strong westerly wind meant most of the waders were hunkered down on the east side & unless I was to walk another 10 or so miles I could only view the west side of the spit from my vantage point. Still 5 more species fell in quick succession, Shag, Sanderling, Common Scoter, Eider and Hooded Crow-I finally found one I was happy with, so many bloomin hybrids around these parts!

Few Oics roosting in the wind on Whiteness spit & a genuine hoodie

Only one more left to hit my target, knowing I was to walk back through a wood really good for crested tit I was feeling quietly confident & a bit of heath where a stonechat had been hanging on over Christmas also looked promising, alas despite wandering round & round the wood I couldn’t pull out a crestie from the flocks of coal tits, goldcrests & treecreepers. 

Crestie habitat, but not for Foot It.

Meadow pipit heaven

But did finally score my 100% bird….3 meadow pipits came bouncing over the heath towards me, can’t say it was my first choice for my 80^th but beggars can’t be choosers! Back home 7hours later, 17 miles walked & 9 new birds in the bag taking me up to my 80 target. Bazinga!

Was tempted to sit on my laurels for the final few days but the disbelief of still not scoring Snipe, Song Thrush or various other would be common birds saw me out again at lunch time today for one last push. None of the predicted ones gave themselves up for me but Foot it still had one last surprise for me, a goose call I didn’t recognise made me look up & two grey geese were flying high overhead, with dark bars across their bellies! White Fronts! Talk about finishing on a high.

Thanks to Ed for keeping me company & carrying my flasks.

Really surprised by my Foot it experience, it all started off so predictable the first half of the month. Still can’t believe some of the common birds I missed but even more of a surprise were the more unusual ones I got. At least 10 not on my predicted list, so should I go for 90 next year? It all depends if I decide to include the coast again or not.

Thanks to Mark for doing such a great job in organising this & it’s been great reading about everyone else’s Foot it adventures along the way.

The end of the Bardsey Foot It

Well, after birding for most of the month (on and off!), it is time to draw my January challenge to an end. I completely failed to hit my target of 80, but hey, I was pretty sure I wouldn't get anywhere near that anyway! The last week or so has been a complete disappointment, and I end today on a grand total of 69. For me, the highlight of the whole month was when Redwings arrived in their hundreds, along with Skylarks, Fieldfares, Grey Plover and Bar-tailed Godwit. Jack Snipe and Great Northern Diver were probably the scarcest species I managed in island-terms, whilst it was great to have a pair of overwintering Whimbrels throughout as well as the male Firecrest.

I have to say thank you to Mark and Martin for organising all of this; I have really enjoyed the challenge, and seeing how every one else gets on their newly discovered patches. For me, January is the quietest and darkest month of the year, and so a good challenge gives me that extra bit of motivation for birding the island when there is hardly anything to see! Things will probably stay quiet for the next month, until the first migrants start to arrive in early March. Thereafter it gets much more exciting, when we can start expecting a few more scarce and rare birds.

 Whimbrel

 Gannet

Purple Sandpiper

Thanks again to Mark for setting the whole thing in motion...

Anyone up for an April Foot It!!?

Welcome to the 100% Club

I crawled in right at the last but I managed to join the 100% club. A 12.5km walk today hoping for the single species that would take me up to the all important mark wasn't going well. I was two-thirds of the way through and 50mph wind gusts had ensured it was hard work for little return. My second Green Sandpiper of the month hopped out of a ditch and 5 Teal were in a farm drain. That was all the excitement I had in the first 2 hours.

I approached the most productive part of the patch, toward the south where some floods have brought in some good birds. These have all dispersed pretty much since the great melt last week so I didn't hold up hope but before I got there I scanned a farm pond which has religiously held 69 Wigeon and 69 Greylags all winter. Well **** me there were 5 Canada Geese in with the Greylags. I have never enjoyed seeing those cruddy, introduced poo factories more than then. I'm still buzzing in fact.

The floods held no birds and neither did the walk home so the last minute success is all the sweeter. No Red-legged Partridges, no Little Owls, no Little Egrets, no Waxwings and I still crept home. The last week has seen me find a couple of Short-eared Owls which appear to be wintering and a fly by Shoveler neither of which were expected fare but that seems to be the theme of this challenge. Unexpected birds in unexpected places. I also finally caught up with the semi-resident Little Grebe on the canal and despite a lack of skeins overhead a single Pink-footed Goose was in with the Greylags for a day.

I hope that everybody else manages to catch up with the 1 or 2 precious ticks this afternoon and manage to reach your targets.

cheers

James

They think it's all over...

Peering through the trees at Blunham

Barring any last-minute miracles, I'm going to have to declare my score at 80 species of a target total of 95 (I just checked and I'd missed off the Shelducks I saw on the 5th), so 84.2%

97 species were recorded on my patch during the month, so my guess wasn't too far off... Not too bad for Bedfordshire, is it?

Aside from walking to work, my last Foot It outing was on Sunday. A Smew had been seen at Blunham the day before, so I dragged myself out there to peer through the trees from behind a barbed-wire fence. No Smew for me, but I did get terrible views of a few Shoveler, so it wasn't entirely a wasted journey (a round trip of nearly 8 miles).

The route I'd taken to the lake had been pretty terrible (unkempt footpaths littered with canine deposits) so I decided to return through town. It turned out to be a good call as I bumped into seven Waxwings by accident - extra pleasing as I'd found 15 a week earlier but while I was in the car...

World's worst iPhonebinned, Flickr-filtered Waxwing photo

I'm pretty happy with my score - should have got a few more but ran out of time. Commuting aside, I walked nearly 29 miles (all in a new pair of Muck Boots - they are awesome), explored some footpaths I should've done a long time ago, and got to know my local area a lot better. I also found Otter tracks not far from home, which might even be my highlight of the month.

It's got me thinking about maybe trying to do a patch year-list - I think 150 could be possible in theory - but we'll see...

Thanks, Foot It!

(Full list follows, if you're interested)

Last Stand

Never, since about the age of five, have I got so excited about seeing a bloody Great-crested Grebe!
I bunked off work this morning to head down to the cliff for a last ditch effort to bump my total.  Nothing new on the trip down (especially no Grey Partridge - grrrrr!) and reaching Overstrand, it was pleasent, but expectations were low.  A Pale-bellied Brent with a group of Dark-bellied going east was a good record, but nothing else was doing.  The endless stream of Red-throated Divers were just that, Red-throated Divers.  The occational auk whizzed through, though always too distant (need Razorbill) but even then they all looked like fat-arsed Guillimots.  Then a group of Knot west pushed the total up by one, followed by the dorkily flying grebe as it passed off shore-100. 
So thats me done, all to do now is to wait and see what else is pulled out of the bag on this final foot-it day and see the scores on the doors - Good Luck to all!

Epilogue

I lost the dog yesterday, for a couple of hours at least as he chased off after a bit of venison ( yeah I know, stone me) in the resultant search I managed to flush a Woodcock giving me a final score of 77. 

Norwell last minute dash

So that's it for me...a couple of hours in a sodding hurricane to see if I can add another few  to the total.
Well, finally located a decent mixed flock of smaller stuff, numbering about 200 birds....mainly yellowhammer and chaffinch but with Tree sparrow (61)linnet (62)and a pleasing find of  brambling (63).Added to skylark earlier in the week, this left me just short.....
A bit further on , scoping a flock of skylark ( and a possible meadow pipit..), a large blob in the  background ....peregrine ! A real surprise and a bird I've not seen this close to home before.
Finally caught up with a red leg to reach my target, which if we are counting feral pigs puts me on 66
Still missing easy stuff but sadly time come to an end .
Well done to all taking part...I've really enjoyed the challenge , so thanks to Mark for setting it all up.
It can't be right for a grown man to be so enthusiastic about a linnet though....

Nearly Done

Well it's almost over but the fat lady hasn't sung her last song yet. Simon Chadwick is facing a last minute challenge by Matthew Bruce - who even after increasing his target is still managing a remarkable 23 species over his revised target.

For most of us (well certainly me) this hasn't been about coming first it's been about setting personal goals and beating them.

I've decided to leave the scoring system as it is, but I'd be interested on others views so that a fairer system can be implemented for next January's challenge.

Back tomorrow for the exciting conclusion.

Mark