They think it's all over...

Back in April 2022, on a warm evening at Gander Green Lane, I was watching Sutton United play Crawley Town in the company of Sussex birder Jake Everitt. Even though the match before us was a pretty decent one, as birders will we started to talk about our birding experiences, particularly what species we had observed while watching football matches. It was at this point that we devised a competition - football spectator meeting birding fanatic - a challenge to find out who could see the most species, while watching football matches - during the upcoming 2022-23 season. The rules were outlined here. Apart from updates on the Twitter/X platform my results have not been revealed - until now!

During the 2022-23 season I attended 47 matches, involving 59 clubs across 14 different grounds. Apart from a random visit to Suffolk-based Leiston Town, they were all played in south-London and Surrey, the majority being at League Two Sutton United where I held a season ticket. I saw 129 goals, the most in a game being seven (Cobham 2 Walton & Hersham 5 and Redhill 3 Guildford City 4). But what about the birds? I finished on seeing (or hearing) 62 species. It was a lot harder than I thought.

Most of the grounds, as you'd expect from lower leagues in northern Surrey, were on the edge of towns or in semi-rural locations - and one or two could be described as in pukka countryside. Many were edged by tree-lines, even open fields. Apart from being better for bird watching these grounds also boasted orchids behind the goals and populations of Marbled Whites (at least at the start of the 'friendly' season.) I did gravitate to these grounds as they suggested 'easy pickings' for the bird list, whereas at urban grounds such as Sutton United these were limited. 

I would normally arrive at a ground in good time to take up my place on the terrace, or even walk around the ground where permitted (generally below League Two where fan segregation is not an issue). This gave me a bit of time to bird (but, as per the rules, no optics!) Half-time gave me a bit more birding time, although I didn't tend to hang around after the full-time whistle. Sometimes breaks in the play allowed a bit of sky watching, and there were times when a dull game gave way to more time being spent looking up. A big attendance at a game would blot out any bird song and calls, whereas the smaller clubs, with their accompanying low attendances, tended to allow these to be heard.

The highlights? A great start was had at the Reigate Priory v Beckenham Town friendly, played at the Netherne Stadium in rural Coulsden, my only Yellowhammers (3-4 and in song) and Whitethroats of the season. Sutton United twice provided Peregrine, seen nowhere else (plus a count of 675 Ring-necked Parakeets coming into roost on the evening of July 19th at the evening friendly against Woking Town.) Cobham v Walton and Hersham mustered up a Hobby, along with a seven goal thriller. It was back to Cobham to add Little Egret (November 5th). Chipstead 'chipped' in with two owl species  - Tawny and Little. A storm-lashed match at Reigate Priory summoned up a Grey Wagtail from the monsoon. Absolute highlight must go to the Osprey that passed close enough and low enough over the Redhill v Guildford match on April 1st. Red Kites and Common Buzzards appeared widely and expectedly. What did I miss? Quite a bit actually: any wader, Skylark, Sand Martin, Willow Warbler, Goldcrest, Coal Tit, Linnet, Siskin, Redpoll and Bullfinch. All gettable.

Place obviously plays a part. If you were to spend a season watching Lydd Town, whose open aspect ground looks out upon Dengemarsh, you would give up counting the Great White and Cattle Egrets by half-time, let alone the passerine migrants calling overhead. Although the competition stopped at the end of the season, I will maintain my 'birds seen whilst watching football' list - I've already added Coot (heard calling from the River Wandle) whilst present at Tooting & Mitcham v Bagshot last month. If nothing else, it brightens up any lacklustre football that might be being played out before you.

I must thank my fellow competitors - Jake Everitt (Brighton & Hove Albion), Sean Moore (Northwood), Mark Bravery (Sutton United) and Paul Chapman (Arsenal).