The (all-important) result is in!

Its official: BTO staff are best when it comes to "looking out for birds"!!

(though we'll soon have equally 'official' confirmation that our RSPB counterparts are better placed to be "nature's voice", once our inferior all-taxa list has been tidied up and revealed)

Anyway, the final BirdTrack Challenge 2011 score:

BTO: 143 species

RSPB: 140 species

(with apologies to Dave Leech, who was hoping for a 4-species win so that he could use "For birds, for people, four behind BTO")

2011 was a roller-coaster year, and generally great fun for everyone involved. I say 'generally' as I do recall the occasional incident of wailing and teeth-gnashing at The Nunnery, as those blasted Derek White's Eggs Pits additions hit the blog last spring. To show just how close it was, and how many twists and turns there were along the way, here are the comparative species accumulations:

A huge thanks to everyone who got involved and added their records to BirdTrack last year, and long may it continue!

More on that other, less-important, aspect of the competition in due course...

Director leads by example

After keeping his powder dry in terms of BirdTrack Challenge additions (or being 2 days behind everyone else, depending which way you look at it), BTO Director Andy Clements chipped in with the vital contribution of a Spotted Flycatcher this lunchtime. 126 OTL, the lead retaken and a potentially very tricky grip-back secured.

I had a dream

I woke up in a panic the other day, convinced that Darren had come back from a bout of ill health (BirdTrack-Challenge-stress induced?) to find that his colleagues had recorded another 14 bird species in his absence... and consequently the Lodgers shot into a sizeable lead in the blink of an eye! I guess my nightmare could still come true as I notice Dunlin hasn't made it on to the Lodge list yet (despite being new for the Lodge master list?) ;-)

Back in the real world, Nunnery Lakes uber-lister John Marchant weighed in with his first contribution to the list on Friday: Oystercatcher - right on cue. John is a purist when it comes to Lakes listing - he doesn't live close enough to Thetford for pre-work / weekend visits (a.k.a 'cheating'!); his momentous list of 163 has been amassed almost exclusively in lunch-hours. John's number one Lakes bogey-bird is Peregrine... we could do with that one falling in 2011.

REAL large white birds...

...as opposed to plastic ones were the reward for a pre-work ringing session on the Nunnery Lakes reserve this morning. 29 Bewick's Swans did us proud (and got me a personal Lakes tick - that's 129 now, Darren!) by flying right overhead whilst we were processing Lesser Redpolls and Bramblings, calling as they went. Fortunately nobody had a bird in their hand at the crucial moment so bins were raised in unison... before we all turned to former Slimbridge volunteer Lucy Wright for confirmation we'd made the right call.

No need for dodgy plastic imitations here!

Virtual Lakes tour: Part I

Clearly another slow day today: I resorted to taking photos of scenery. If you look really hard though, you might see some of the highlights of my BirdTrack list for the day: Coot, Black-headed Gull and possibly even an uber-gripping Egyptian Goose tucked up in the island... be still my beating heart.

Anyway it does present the perfect opportunity for the first part of an exciting virtual Nunnery Lakes tour. And where more logical to start than the imaginatively named 'D Lake'? Yes you spotted the irony. Crap name or not, this is where it all happens when it comes to waterfowl; my one and only Lakes Smew (a cracking white nun at that), the spot for Goldeneye (where are you when we need you?) and the place where we'll finally nail Shoveler for the year (I predict September...). Today? 3 Goosanders and a modest group of 4 Gadwall. Hmmm...

A four tick day

Four species have fallen to Lodge birders today: first, a Bullfinch in Sandy Heath Quarry, then Great Crested Grebe on Warren Villas NR, a Brambling was seen in front of the hide and finally, a flock of c.100 Golden Plover wheeling over the Ivel Valley (which incidentally, was my 14,000th BirdTrack record). All birds outside the reserve boundary were observed from within it.

The Lodge year list moves steadily forward to a respectable 75.

Obsessive Birder Calls for BirdTrack to carry Government Health Warning

Obsessive Lodge lister Darren Oakley-Martin this morning publicly admitted to suffering from Birdtrackolism. In a frank and brutally honest interview with the BTO's Nick Moran on their new free-to-view channel Counting Birds, Darren said ''It's gone too far now. I woke up this morning and my first thought was how many birds I could get on my Lodge Complete Species List for the day.''

He continued ''I did the normal stuff: had a cup of coffee and a fag, took a shower - which gave me time to formulate a strategy to nail Little Owl - got dressed and walked the three miles to my workplace at The Lodge.''

''It was only when I arrived and found all the doors locked and the carpark empty that I realised it was Sunday. It's high time the BTO showed some responsibility towards heavy BirdTrack users...they don't even have a crisis line like the Samaritans for heaven's sake, and their staff only work nine to five - the slackers.''

Attempting to steer the conversation in a different direction, Nick asked ''So, did you see anything?'' ''Erm, yes.'' Darren replied. ''Two Woodcock and a Peregrine, which, off the top of my head, means I've recorded them on 2.76% and 3.12% of my visits respectively.''

250th time lucky!

Today was the 250th date I've been out on the reserve since starting work at the BTO in July 2009 (which I didn't know until I checked my records in BirdTrack, honest). A fitting bird to mark the occasion then? Absolutely: Bittern! Not only does that push us up to 83 for the year (and/or fortnight, depending which way you look at it) but it puts my own Lakes list to 128, exactly level with Darren's Lodge list (and he started all this!).

Birders aren't known for their trusting approach to records from other birders, let alone civilians. I have to confess that when I heard the reports of 2 (or was that 3?!) Bitterns from the local fishermen last month my left eyebrow adopted an acute angle and I muttered something cynical, probably containing the phrase 'female Pheasant'. Note to self: Take seriously fishermen's recent report of "2 egrets that were bigger than the usual one"...

Nunnery recording area

For the record (and because folk have been asking!) here's a map of the Nunnery recording area. Note that it straddles a vice county boundary, which is significant for biological recording. For larger, mobile taxa (that'll be birds and mammals then), the rules are 'on or from' the marked area.

And they're off!

BTO staff were out in force (well, at least 4 of them, anyway) on New Year's Day, eager to get the Nunnery Lakes 2011 bird list up and running. Mike Toms, Dave Leech, Dawn Balmer and Neil Calbrade all texted me their best offerings, which included Woodcock, Little Egret, Goosander, Little Grebe (infrequent on the reserve, especially when most of the lakes are under ice) and otter.

I returned from 'up north' to my house on the edge of the reserve late last night; no Tawny Owl to greet me so my first Lakes year ticks had to wait until this morning. An extensive tour of duty with Dave added a few things the team hadn't connected with over the weekend: Barn Owl, Nuthatch and the Pink-footed Goose that's been around for a couple of months - the latter a big relief as this would have been a difficult species to catch up with had this individual moved on as we feared it might.

My BirdTrack list for this morning totalled 52 species, exactly the same number Mike and Dave recorded on New Year's Day. The overall total will have to wait until Wednesday when I'm back in the office and can combine everyone's records but we must be up to 60 or thereabouts.

Contenders ready

The temperature might be sub-zero but hardy BTO staff are already warming up for the BTO vs RSPB BirdTrack Challenge. Whilst it could be some time before moth traps and butterfly nets see active service, fieldguides are already being dusted down and lists tidied up. No one is quite sure what to expect but it'll certainly be bins, camera, action on 1 January; we just hope today's Pink-footed Goose hangs around until then!

From left: Ieuan Evans, John Marchant, Graham Appleton, Iain Downie, Karen Wright, Tim Harrison, Mike Toms, Nick Moran, Peter Lack, Andy Musgrove, Dawn Balmer, Ian Henderson, Neil Calbrade, Kate Risely, Rob Robinson