Jeepers! October is nearly over! Its been good on patch though of late with three yellow-browed warblers, firecrest and a very approachable red-breasted flycatcher being the key highlights.
I managed a patch tick too, in the form of crossbills - the first bunch flew over unseen a few days ago, leaving me with a tricky patch tick dilemma, as I've no other "heard only" species on the patch list. Luckily I heard some more yesterday and managed to get on them as they went over - nine birds heading south-east. Its been a good autumn for crossbills on the south coast (e.g. 100+ on Cape yesterday!!) so connecting with them was eagerly anticipated!
The patch year record has been demolished this year too, currently standing on 144 after fieldfare today - the previous best was 141 in 2010 and there's still two months to go!! This record breaking score has also had implications for the Patch Challenge, with very little separating the top five, all of whom are over 100% already. However, as things stand I'm just in the lead, and am hoping to consolidate this over the next few weeks! Sure, we'll see how it goes...