Tuesday 27 November 2012

What is the 'patchwork' challenge?



The birding fraternity has seen a shift in attitudes recently, with many birders turning their attention from twitching towards rarity finding.  As a result, there also seems to have been an upturn in the profile watching a local patch.

The advantages of watching a local patch are obvious. Low fuel costs and travel time aside, great pleasure can be derived from getting to learn a place inside out, observing how the seasons change, and getting value from common species that otherwise wouldn’t get a second glance. Throw in the potential for the odd rare bird or scarcity and to me, you have a really exciting, involving way to enjoy your birding.

So what could enhance the patch watchers enjoyment a little? Well, perhaps adding an element of competition would do the trick. We’re a competitive bunch, us birders, both with our peers and ‘internally’ as well. We like a gloat, we like to add things to lists, and we like to know what the numbers are. So why not see if we can add a little friendly competition to our patch birding.

There is one immediate problem with this – how do you compare one patch with another? The birder who ‘patches’ at Minsmere is going to see a lot more species than the birder who patches at some inland woodland. Also, how do you rate the species seen? It’s hardly fair that the hard earned Radde’s warbler earns the same number of points as a meadow pipit. And it’s a bit unfair that a self found Radde’s would score the same as one that you’d twitched.  I think coming up with an absolutely bulletproof way of scoring a competition like this is impossible – there are too many variables, but after some long and hard thought, we’ve come up with a scoring system (actually a combination of two existing scoring systems with a few tweaks) that we believe is suitable.

So bear with me while I go through the rules and the scoring system….it might get a bit dull…

The scores

As I alluded to earlier, the score each bird earns will be related to its rarity. We have used the ‘Birdguides’ rarity categories, which gives every species on the BOU British list a rarity value (common, local, scarce, rare and mega). These categories will be scored 1 – 5 respectively. Those species categorized as scarce or rarer, if self found, will have their points doubled, so, for example, the Radde’s warbler mentioned above will be worth 3 points if you twitch it, but 6 if you find it yourself.

Again though, this definitely seems to favour Minsmere over Manchester, and a patcher working Fair Isle could well score an awful lot of points! But to level the playing field, to even out ‘patch quality’, we propose a scoring system that relates the observers’ score to the tallies run up over previous years. This makes your score representative of how good your year has been on your patch. To do this, all you need to do is present your score as a percentage of your last years score – and as the competition goes on, as a percentage of the average of the previous two years scores.

This may seem complex but there is a reason. We’ve trialed the points scoring system, and for the most part it is fine. However, we noticed that there could be a little contention regarding the value of some birds. A kittiwake, for example, is worth 2 points. A coastal observer will probably see kittiwake every year, a lot, whereas someone based inland would be very pleased when a kitti graced their patch. Using our system, the points gained for the kittiwake by the inland birder (in this instance) will have more impact on their overall score than the kittiwake scored every year by a coastal observer.
For people who are new to patch listing or have had a larger patch in the past we will run a league for point’s only patches for the first year. If there are enough competitors we may even break these down into fairer leagues e.g. inland league, east coast league etc. Thereafter in the second year everyone can be included in the main percentage league using their score from year one.
Simple? Well, no…but it certainly goes a fair way towards leveling the playing field – after all, this is a competition between patchers and not patches. To make things simple, we will send each competitor a spreadsheet that keeps a tally of their score as they add species to it.

The rules

The rules are pretty simple. Your patch must have an area of 3 km2 maximum (3 x 1km squares). It doesn’t have to be rectangular, or comply with any OS grid lines; it can be any shape you want it to be. It just has to be 3 km2 or smaller.

The birds that contribute to your score must be within the boundaries of the patch (i.e. you don’t need to be), or, seen or heard while you are on your patch. So, heard only birds count, distant passing seabirds count, flyovers count, and birds flushed from the patch while you approach your site count.

Unfortunately, to keep things in the here and now, we won’t be able to wait for rarities committees to verify records of rare birds. I should imagine the majority of rare or mega birds will be of suitable interest to other birders to attract some ‘external verification’, as will many of the scarce birds. However, more than one observer will see not everything so we’ll just have to rely on the honesty of the competitors.


But we’re an honest lot aren’t we, so that wont be a problem!

If you're interested in taking part in the challenge email us on patchworkchallenge@gmail.com if you have any more questions or with your patch boundaries etc.
Patch boundaies example 1
Patch boundaries example 2




30 comments:

  1. Can't believe the "Bare with me" got through the proof-reading check! After three, everyone....

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  2. Apostrophe error on 'point's only" too. Tut tut. Who said we were a competitive lot?

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  3. Even though it was me that wrote that, I'm blaming Ryan....

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  4. Actually, it was Ryan who wrote that bit! In your face Ryan! Ha!

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  5. I am in. Just emailing me 3km2 patch across. Its is Livermere, see: http://necrosadisticapathynullification.blogspot.co.uk/p/livermere-or-die.html

    Cheers,

    Jonny

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  6. is there a maximum distance out to sea for birds or does the amount of sea also have to be included in the 3km distance?

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    1. None of your patch has to cover the sea, as long as you are in the patch while seawatching you can count the birds you see during the seawatch.

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  7. "The birding fraternity has seen a shift in attitudes recently, with many birders turning their attention from twitching towards rarity finding. As a result, there also seems to have been an upturn in the profile watching a local patch"
    - So who found the rarities before? You'll find patchworking isn't a new thing. Most good birders when there was nothing to twitch always fell back on their local patch.

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  8. A fair point. Maybe we're just harping on about it a bit more these days!

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  9. Interesting comments.

    Although there are certainly birders who "fall back on their local patch" because there's nothing to twitch - and probably a lot who just fall into their armchairs instead - more and more people do currently seem to be viewing their patch as the lifeblood of their birding - as I think it ought to be. It teaches you about the interactions of birds, places and people: sociological, historical and ecological and it gets under your skin as you come to know it intimately. It's great to read about people getting out and finding their own birds rather than spending every weekend chasing whatever is on the black box. Add in the reduction in time needed, the reduced emissions, reduced expense and more time spent out birding, it seems like an all round winner.

    Of course, if your patch is a bird-free shithole, I fully see the need to get in the car now and again and see what's about. Or move house.

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    1. Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with most of what you say Tim [the 'move house' bit is all very well but I've yet to convince the BTO to relocate to the Waxham Triangle, and I'd sooner be able to walk to work ;) ], I also think Mark Lawlor's 'Final Word' in the BirdWatch Dec 2012 makes an equally valid point. Essentially, variety is the spice of life / don't forsake other (local?) hotspots solely for the sake of 'sticking to patch'.

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  10. The patchwork challenge is a great idea and I'm currently drawing ever more weird and wonderful shapes on the map to try to keep my local patch (Stornoway) within the 3 sq km limit.

    I've got a nit-picking question about the rules: If you twitch a species on your patch and then, later in the year, find a different individual of the same species, can you then award yourself the self-found bonus? Not that there's much twitching in Stornoway, with hardly any birders, but you never know...

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    1. Hi Tristan, you would indeed get the self found bonus if you find one later in the year.

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  11. As with counting birds out at sea, can we count birds outside the patch boundaries as long as one is within the patch boundaries?

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  12. That's magic, I'm now searching for a telescope that'll get me Red Grouse on the Pennine Hills 25 miles away!!! or is that cheating?

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  13. And can you enter with one more than one patch ? Listed separately of course.

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    1. HI Dave, ye you can enter as many seperate patches as you want, we have a couple people doing two so far.

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  14. Ok, I have signed up for this and I shall be flying the flag for the county of Wiltshire. My patch on the North Wessex Downs isn't exactly renowned for being a birders paradise, but I love it and it's all I've got.

    I'm going to come right out with a couple of bold predictions; firstly, I won't be logging any ultra-rare waders; secondly, I'm probably going to come last. Still, it should be fun and I'll give it my best shot.

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  15. Hi all, was planning on joining this years patch challenge but I was wondering whether I would need to include the area of water over which seabirds will pass to count them. Would I have to dedicate some of my 3km2 limit to an area offshore in which I can count the flypast seabirds or can I count birds seen simply from my patch on land?

    Cheers,
    Samuel

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    1. This was answered further up the list mate, you can count seabirds that you see when standing on your patch. So if you have Pendennis Head as your patch you can count anything that flies past on the sea as long as you are standing in your patch boundaries.

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  16. I use a trail camera to record mammals overnight on my patch. If a bird turns up on film that I haven't seen this year can I count it?

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  17. Thanks for setting up this site and challenge.
    Can you confirm the mapping rule? The examples of PWC maps I've seen are blob-shaped but surely there is a big advantage to having ribbon-shaped areas. For example, a two metre wide site following a coastal path that leads through miles and miles of varied habitat and multiple good vantage points would give an advantage over someone with a blob or square-shaped site.

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  18. Dave I was thinking exactly that - if I make my ribbon really narrow I can extend my patch along the whole of the south shore of the Burry Inlet and out to Burry Holms! - so, is there a minimum ribbon width?

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  19. At the moment there is no minimum ribbon width - which would be a good idea to minimise the long, and for want of a much better word, stringy patches! However, it needs a bit more thought - my girdle ness patch is definitely in the 'blob' category - but there are bits (corners, for example) that probably wouldn't meet a minimum width criteria. I think the choice may fall down to choosing between a pretty complex and time consuming metric for patch width, or relying on the better nature of contestants not to take the micky...We'll give it some thought and would welcome other suggestions. FYI chaps, our Facebook page may be the best place to discuss things like this!

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  20. Perhaps stating a minimum length or width would get around this - my local patch is the 20km length of the south shore of the Burry Inlet which would be nice to have, but perhaps a fair length would be a 300m wide 10km length?

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  21. I think this is a cheat - locate tundra Beans in flock 500-1000m from patch boundary, return to patch, climb tree, scan flock but can't see legs, return to flock confirm Beans still present? I assume by the rules to count you have to be able to ID the bird? Perhaps they'll fly over the house tmrw...

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  22. Tried again today, Bean and Whitefront still present in c. 2600 Pinks 300-400m from patch edge but still could not see them from my tree, entire flock then flushed by farmer, they must have been calling in the din - but drowned out by Pinks...

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  23. I am in my 1st day and I have 30 points. All 1 pointers.

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