Saturday 25 June 2016

Coastal Scotland Minileague - May 2016

Chris Rodger finishes the month of May within striking distance of reaching his 100% target in the Coastal Scotland Comparative Minileague. An excellent month for him at Musselburgh lands him on 98.3% and still in first place thanks to highlights which included a Golden Oriole (found by fellow PWC birder, Colin Davison) and a 'superciliarus'-type Yellow Wagtail which would seem to have a lot of feldegg in it.

A Short-eared Owl was Stephen Welch's fourth record for his Godford Bay patch where he remains in second place for another month. Tor Hamilton climbs to fifth place from eight at Leith where a Grey Heron during May was a first that far upriver for the patch. Andrew Whitehouse is also making tracks moving up from ninth to seventh at Girdle Ness and Torry with a Red-backed Shrike providing bonus points there.


Red-backed Shrike and Wryneck at Barns Ness © Geoff Morgan

Colin Davison holds on to first place in the Coastal Scotland Points Minileague for another month with Black Tern, Iceland Gull and Humpback Whale added (although no points for the latter!). He is just two points ahead of Mike Hodgkin at Aberlady Bay however who pipped Chris Rodger to the post for second place. The top three are all in the 140 and 180 points bracket at the end of May so it will be interesting to see how the rankings pan out through the somewhat quite summer period before autumn kicks in.

Geoff Morgan holds onto his fourth place raking at Barns Ness with 169 points, an equal score to Jim Dickson at the Crinan Canal Corridor who has a higher species count but is beaten by Geoff on the basis of Points Per Bird. The male Red-backed Shrike and Wryneck picture above contributed to this for Geoff.

Eleswhere, a Glossy Ibis at Starnafin Pools for Lorna Dow at RSPB Loch of Strathbeg was the only other notable highlight of the month.


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