The County bounty

I have taken a moment to review where I've picked up this years ticks.
I have visited 25 counties in my quest to break 300 for the first time. On these travels I have passed through well over half the counties of Britain stopping to bird a few without adding year ticks to the list below but have still had some good birding encounters along the way.

The top county is Norfolk but I expected that as it's where I start my list most years but I was quite surprised to see just 28 from my home county of Essex although when heading to the coast I do favour Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Holidays in Scotland and Wales made up for eight of the county lists and most outside of these holidays were within a two hour drive apart from the big twitches in Cornwall, Lancashire and East Yorkshire which were mostly for Life ticks.

There's always something interesting when you review the annual adventure but I'm mindful that it's not over for another two weeks and I feel there's still another bird out there for 2019.

So if you're planning on testing yourself against the 300 target without visiting the Islands the above might give you a taster of the effort involved and I should add that these 25 counties accounted for over 100 birding days in the field and again Norfolk leads the pack with 15 days spent birding the county this year. (15% of the effort for 44% of the reward)

The most productive county for new ticks was East Yorkshire which accounted for 3 of my additions.

onwards and upwards!