Bird Race 2008 U-Turn
3 June 2008 | Marek Walford
Last month I reported that the 2008 Bird Race went to sudden death. The scores were level but my team was declared the winner by virtue of reaching the total first, by nine minutes. Well, there has been a dramatic u-turn! It turns out that owing to bad writing on their part, and/or bad reading on the judge's part, it was actually Fraser's team who reached the total first! Apparently the judge's decision isn't final after all as it's since been decided that the result was a draw!
There was further controversy when the "bird of the day" was awarded to Pete Hickman's team for Great Black-backed Gull. Undoubtedly this is a good Bird Race bird but it has been recorded several times before. A species that hasn't been recorded before, but was seen by Richard Crawford's team was Short-eared Owl. It seems fair that Richard and his team should get the kudos!