Champions of the Flyway 2016 – blog 6

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The winning team, the Zeiss Arctic Redpolls (left to right: Roni Väisänen, Vilppu Välimäki and Jarkko Santaharju with Dale Forbes from Swarovski. 174 species!

 

 

Day 6 – the morning after! 30 March

The teams, and not just the international teams but Israeli team and childrens’ teams too, assembled on the beach for a group photo at 10am and then there was an awards ceremony in a local hotel.

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A moving tribute to the late Martin Garner from all participants (I’m at the back somewhere). Photo: Dov Greenblat

Here are the final standings of the teams – congratulations to them all!

I have to say I am completely in awe of the total reached by the winning team and all the others way above our own total too! How many birds flew past us unrecognised, or called unheard? How many species would you have recorded if you had been in our team?

Whereas we didn’t see the most species, we did pretty well in the money-raising stakes (although we were far from winning that too). The current standings in that race are as follows:

The Bird Watcher’s Digest/ZEISS Way–off Coursers £9111

The Birding Ecotours Bandits £6690

Birdwatch-Birdguides Roadrunners £4698

The BirdLife Swarovski Optik Racers £4698

LEICA Cape May Bird Observatory American Dippers £4200

Arctic Redpolls £3454

Dutch Knights £2759

Team Extremadura £2611

Pterodromoi BirdLife Greece £2565

Inglorious Bustards £2547

Sempach Snowfinches £2299

Zeiss BBRC Vagrants £2276

Next Generation Birders £1210

SEO BirdLife £912

Flying Dutchmen £32

 

We’re doing pretty well in that race (and it is one we took seriously!). Don’t tell them, but we seem to be exactly equal with the Birdlife team on fundraising – your contribution will keep us just a little ahead of them (Shhh! Don’t tell them).

The event is over – but the cause goes on! Please consider topping up our fundraising pot here. The site remains open until 1 May and the money raised goes to help the Hellenic Ornithological Society combat the illegal killing of migrant birds, many of the same species we saw in Eilat, in Greece.  Thank you for all contributions.

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