Winning

Magnus and I had a little competition throughout May to see who could see the most bird species on the reserve. It came very close and I’ll give Magnus credit for finding some great birds and sharing them with me (I’m sure he’ll do the same for me) but in the end the English man won, Magnus took defeat well and will be punished accordingly this weekend. The punishment has changed from Hair dye, to beer buyer and now final we “agreed” on a Naked Jump into the Canal on a Saturday afternoon at a famous tourist attraction. I look forward to Magnus jumping from a small bridge into the deep murky waters below and I think he looks forward to it more so. The Final scores were 139 to me and 136 for Magnus. The best birds involved were 2 Red-Footed Falcon (Male and Female), Corncrake, Spotted Crake, Penduline tit, Black Kite, Red-Necked Phalarope, Honey Buzzard and Goshawk for me and Magnus was lucky enough to hear Great Snipe displaying on one of his wetland surveys. Between us we saw 146 Species on the reserve in one month and others saw birds that we both missed. It’s funny how it came to a close with the only species separating us being very common, Magnus failed to see (Or overlooked) Dunnock, Wren and Long-eared owl. The former 2 were very often in voice throughout the start of May and the latter is nesting nearby the house. It was a fun competition with excitement to the last, seeing 7 new species in the final 2 days. I’ll post some pictures of birds we saw at a later date.