What a mad month that was, but would I do it again of course now I see the totals I can see i should have put a little bit more effort into beating that young warford.
oh well there will always be another may madness.
keep birding.
dave broome said
Wed Jun 4 1:47 PM, 2008
Well done Declan.
The monthly list for May is definitely something I would do again. It added a bit of an edge to things and definitely spurred me in to making some visits to places which I wouldn't have otherwise got around to fitting in. These included, for example, my first visit to Etherow in 13 years and a couple of sites which I hadn't been to previously.
Cheers to Ian for arranging it. As pointed out by him, it doesn't necessarily have to be a direct competition between those taking part, but a personal target, or a benchmark to aim for next time. Hopefully that extra bit of effort can lead to a bit of extra coverage resulting in a few good birds being found. Roll on 2009??
declan savage said
Tue Jun 3 11:06 PM, 2008
Cheers Simon and Geoff,
Ian has my full list for the month and I'd be more than happy if he wants to stick it on the website. I'd be interested to see how many species in total were seen in the month by all the participants in the various madness events - i know there were quite a few i didnt see that others did.
Declan
Geoff Hargreaves said
Tue Jun 3 10:16 PM, 2008
congratulations to all involved,you,ve got to take your hat off to declan for putting in the effort ,and setting the bench mark for next year.For me it made a busy month that more interesting ,out birding with mates,cursing birds that had decided to hide on a particular day,regreting that i left my eco day untill the leaves came out(greenhorn)so roll on next year i.ll do better.and thanks to ian mck for having the patience to organise it.
cheers geoff
p.s set 2 personel twitching records 7.5mins for the cattle egret and an astonishing 11 mins for the fulmar
Simon Warford said
Tue Jun 3 8:47 PM, 2008
Well done Declan 133 is an impressive total indeed. Are we likely to see a full species list on the website like we have for the January totals??
Craig Higson said
Sat May 24 12:01 AM, 2008
dave broome wrote:
Craig Higson wrote:
/> Should have thought about this a bit more before commiting to hari kari listing.
.....................Kakariki is a New Zealand parrot sp. so is an obvious escape, you're not counting that
But I need all the help I can get.
dave broome said
Fri May 23 12:59 PM, 2008
Craig Higson wrote:
/> Should have thought about this a bit more before commiting to hari kari listing.
.....................Kakariki is a New Zealand parrot sp. so is an obvious escape, you're not counting that
Ian McKerchar said
Fri May 23 12:49 PM, 2008
The May-hem results will be published with a full account at the end of the month but it's intention was never to actually be a full blown competition between entrants, although it was enevitable that some whould take it more seriously than others , in fact, my intention was for it to be a personal competition, so that next year individuals could attempt to beat their own achievement otherwise those who can't devote as much time and effort to listing as others wouldn't enter the competition for fear of coming at the bottom of the pile and that negates the whole ethos of it. May-hem was another attempt to get more birders out there actively looking and enjoying county birding and there's no doubt it's been one of the best Mays for a long time so far at least and in days when it's getting too expensive to travel elsewhere, making the most of what's around you is no bad thing at all
declan savage said
Fri May 23 7:47 AM, 2008
Simon Warford wrote:
Declan is taking this seriously i reckon
Quite right Simon - its getting a bit scary how it is starting to take over a little bit - madness indeed. And yet somehow my list is still rubbish... At least it has given me the chance to explore new bits of the county and give my county list a bit of a boost. back to counting robins and parakeets in Alex park for me next month.
Craig Higson said
Thu May 22 10:08 PM, 2008
Simon Warford wrote:
so just over a week to go and the mega's keep on coming, Declan is taking this seriously i reckon, this driving westwards is getting far too frequent for my liking!
-- Edited by Simon Warford at 21:34, 2008-05-22
Yep 1 week and I'm not here for most of it Should have thought about this a bit more before commiting to hari kari listing.
Can we have a special prize for the lowest Month List
Simon Warford said
Thu May 22 9:33 PM, 2008
so just over a week to go and the mega's keep on coming, Declan is taking this seriously i reckon, this driving westwards is getting far too frequent for my liking!
-- Edited by Simon Warford at 21:34, 2008-05-22
Geoff Hargreaves said
Sat May 10 3:58 PM, 2008
reet peeps,the gloves are off the wigan team have set a date for the single site race ,it,ll be like walking through tulips,but if anyone spots a newbie on the 18th don,t be shy ,
the pie eaters
Mark Rigby said
Wed May 7 10:57 PM, 2008
I think Warfy was struggling to ID the Gypo. He was taking an age to ID it. He said he had never seen a bird quite like it-well I think it was a goose of some discription he was looking at!!
Paul Heaton said
Wed May 7 10:53 PM, 2008
Pied flycatcher and egyptian goose all showing well today,
As for my disguise well I guess the big bugger of white van gives it away:
keep birding.
Ian Campbell said
Wed May 7 9:38 PM, 2008
Thanks
Paul Cliff said
Wed May 7 9:11 PM, 2008
t'gyptian goose!
Ian Campbell said
Wed May 7 9:06 PM, 2008
OK, I've thought long and and hard about this, am I prepared to look stupid? YES, I often do. Here Goes- Can someone please tell me, what the **** is a Gyppo, or Gypo, depending on who is smelling. I don't care anyway, next weekend I'm off to Etherow to see a Pied Fly Cheers Ian
Paul Cliff said
Wed May 7 8:29 PM, 2008
lol! you didn't miss my bird mobile either did you - cheers for the txt, shame i missed you on the paths!
i bumped into a half working plumage man-on-a-mission-heaton by the weir too!
Simon Warford said
Wed May 7 6:09 PM, 2008
While you were at the cricket Mr Woosey i was enjoying the sights and delights of Etherow CP, my first visit to this site with the Gypo showing well. Must go again preferably on a warm sunny day definately brought the birds out
fancy bumping into mr rigby and there was a familiar looking RSPCA van parked in the car park.
-- Edited by Simon Warford at 18:09, 2008-05-07
Simon Warford said
Mon May 5 9:17 PM, 2008
A little bird tells me a certain monthly marathon entrant visited Etherow today, you know who you are! nice to know the gyppo is still there
Paul Heaton said
Fri May 2 9:52 PM, 2008
I have not had the best start, infact could only bird from the garden yesterday, but have had full attack today and given a pleasing wind this weekend will pass that whipper-snapper who is also known as Warfy,infact not far behind him
keep birding
Craig Higson said
Thu May 1 11:03 PM, 2008
Ah - I see. Of course the Mandarin at Pennington today was quite a nice and unexpected addition to my total. Gypo's up at the Etherow you say.........
I only realised after I entered this that I'm actually out of the county for nearly half the month so I'm going to have to pull all the stops out to get anything like a decent tally. Up to the moors next methinks for some of them moorland specials.
Ian Woosey said
Thu May 1 10:57 PM, 2008
I hope you're not suggesting that 'I' would twitch something at Pennington Ian
No, not at all Craig - I was in fact referring to Mr Warford - he who twitches Mandarin Ducks, and the same feller who will very soon be racing off to Etherow for the Gyppo !
Craig Higson said
Thu May 1 10:48 PM, 2008
Ian Woosey wrote:
It`s a monthly marathon..................I`ll let you know on the last day of May.
(At least I didn`t twitch anything today !)
I hope you're not suggesting that 'I' would twitch something at Pennington Ian
I have an aversion to Pagers, however I find the sweet sound of a bird alert text message to be more acceptable I do have to admit.
No - I just 'turned up' and missed the osprey that flew over half an hour before I arrived - again
Ian Woosey said
Thu May 1 10:09 PM, 2008
It`s a monthly marathon..................I`ll let you know on the last day of May.
(At least I didn`t twitch anything today !)
Simon Warford said
Thu May 1 9:47 PM, 2008
79 Species today with not much effort, Elton & Pennington and a quick visit to rindle road How did u do mr woosey not incl Barnacle?
Craig Higson said
Thu May 1 6:41 PM, 2008
So, all those entering the monthly marathon, how did your first day go???
Not being the over energetic sort I decided a nice saunter to Horrocks hide would help kick the month off and at least i managed Black Tern and Little Gull. Overall managed a not too bad......nah. That would be telling (and potentially embarrasing).
oh well there will always be another may madness.
keep birding.
The monthly list for May is definitely something I would do again. It added a bit of an edge to things and definitely spurred me in to making some visits to places which I wouldn't have otherwise got around to fitting in. These included, for example, my first visit to Etherow in 13 years and a couple of sites which I hadn't been to previously.
Cheers to Ian for arranging it. As pointed out by him, it doesn't necessarily have to be a direct competition between those taking part, but a personal target, or a benchmark to aim for next time. Hopefully that extra bit of effort can lead to a bit of extra coverage resulting in a few good birds being found. Roll on 2009??
Ian has my full list for the month and I'd be more than happy if he wants to stick it on the website.
I'd be interested to see how many species in total were seen in the month by all the participants in the various madness events - i know there were quite a few i didnt see that others did.
Declan
cheers geoff
p.s set 2 personel twitching records 7.5mins for the cattle egret and an astonishing 11 mins for the fulmar
Yep 1 week and I'm not here for most of it
Can we have a special prize for the lowest Month List
-- Edited by Simon Warford at 21:34, 2008-05-22
the pie eaters
As for my disguise
keep birding.
I don't care anyway, next weekend I'm off to Etherow to see a Pied Fly
Cheers Ian
i bumped into a half working plumage man-on-a-mission-heaton by the weir too!
fancy bumping into mr rigby and there was a familiar looking RSPCA van parked in the car park.
-- Edited by Simon Warford at 18:09, 2008-05-07
keep birding
I only realised after I entered this that I'm actually out of the county for nearly half the month so I'm going to have to pull all the stops out to get anything like a decent tally.
Up to the moors next methinks for some of them moorland specials.
No, not at all Craig - I was in fact referring to Mr Warford
I hope you're not suggesting that 'I' would twitch something at Pennington Ian
I have an aversion to Pagers, however I find the sweet sound of a bird alert text message to be more acceptable I do have to admit.
No - I just 'turned up' and missed the osprey that flew over half an hour before I arrived - again
(At least I didn`t twitch anything today !)