Amanda chats to UK birder Joe Parham, founder of the Green Patch Challenge

Twenty- two-year- old Joe tells me that he started the Challenge back in 2021 during lockdown. Birders aged under 25 who want to take part are asked to list birds over the year for a local area of up to five square miles which they are able to travel to only on foot or by bike. “A green approach to travelling to the area is important”, he says, “and I encourage the birders to set a target for how many birds they were hoping to see”. Joe was also hoping to demonstrate that you didn’t need to travel a long way to see interesting birds as they could turn up anywhere.

I ask Joe how many people have taken part so far. “It was about 50 people in 2021, but it’s up to 60 this year”, he says and tells me that while participants are mostly in England there are a few in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, too. Over 2021, Joe collated everyone’s lists to give 240 different bird species seen across the year. But how does Joe manage to fit all this around his uni studies – he’s currently doing a Masters in Cell Biology at Warwick? “The group’s been very easy to organise”, he says, “mostly running itself online, although I have organised a few one- day events with a couple of friends, Matt Broadbent and Keir Chauhan, when all the green patchers have recorded at the same time”.

Joe himself visits an area around Kenilworth and the University of Warwick to compile his list. His experience seems to suggest that if you spend more time in one area and really scan the flocks of birds you see, you might just find something unexpected. His most exciting sightings to date have been Yellow- browed Warbler, Caspian Gull, Firecrest and Marsh Harrier.