Bird Race Results!

After the success of last year’s North Wales Wildlife Trust’s Bird Race, a similar event took place this year on a hot and windy Saturday 17th May. Seven teams set off at varying times - there are rumours that The Tits began their day at 3am, whereas the laidback Limestone Loiterers were still partying at that time in the morning and didn’t start until 10:30am. The teams visited 23 wildlife trust reserves across the region and about 120 different bird species were recorded. It was a close race with the winning team (The Tits) counting 88 species in (or near) the West’s reserves, just 3 species more than Bulgarian String Trio who came second. The records were put into the Cofnod Online Recording System (ORS) and the full results can be seen here along with a list of all the species recorded.

Although it was primarily a bird race, some teams counted butterflies too and 14 different species were seen.

Thanks to Ben Stammers of the Wildlife Trust for organising the race and to everyone who took part.

The informal honours;

• Best team name – Limestone Loiterers
• Best dressed team – Out for a Duck (Jeremy in formal attire for part of race)
• Best beard – Jeremy (Out for a Duck)
• Best bobble hat – no winner as yet – not a bobble hat day perhaps?
• Best packed lunch – Sam (Tits) – butternut squash and ginger soup, home-made pasties
• Most unusual record – Pintail pair in lagoon at Spinnies (Bulgarian String Trio & Out for a Duck)
• Best bird seen off site – Red Kite very close to a stone’s throw from Coed Porthamel (Optimists)
• Best dream – Jen (Limestone Loiterers) – dreamed of having to wake exhausted bird race partner to get to next site… (Anna from Optimists also dreamed of birdsong)
• Butterfly race winners – Limestone Loiterers (11 species – great list from just 3 sites)
• Best excuse for not taking part – Steve Culley – “still haven't recovered from losing by 1 bird :-( unfortunately I’m on call till 1pm and I'm going to see Prince in Concert in Manchester at 6pm”