Half time analysis

Today I had the pleasure of dropping my youngest and his girl at Gatwick for an early morning flight to Spain. Four hours on the London orbital car park with a bit of ducking and diving they managed to make their flight in time but over four hours to do a 100 mile round trip is not my idea of fun. I'd gladly drive four hours but I do like the car to move for the majority of that four hours.

I got home and decided on a rest day watching a bit of tennis like you do but between sets I have been taking a look at where my year list sits versus last year at the half year stage. At the end of June last year I had seen 247 different birds in Britain. At the same point this year I've seen 256 so nine more in total. I have seen 21 birds this year that I didn't see at all last year of which 15 are lifers (birds I've never seen before in Britain)  I have still to see 44 of the birds I connected with last year although only 21 of these had been seen by the end of June and I think it's very unlikely that some will be seen this year.

Nine of the birds I saw in the second half of 2012 have already been seen this year and they make the difference on my total but I will obviously need to find replacement birds if I'm to finish above the 2012 total.