What started as a failed £100 bet with my good friend last year, turned into a bird challenge that I will never forget. Last May my cousin, my friend Joe and I attempted to prove that we could see 100 birds within the M25 in just 48 hours. Despite our best efforts, and because of events out of our control, we had to pick a weekend which was just 'after' the key migration period, I unfortunately lost the bet.Well this year the prize money has doubled to £200! Part of the aim (outside of my desire to prove my friend wrong) is to make people aware that it doesn't matter where you are or what environment you live in, you can always find interesting wildlife if you just take the time to look. We will also be submitting house sparrow sightings along the way for the RSPB cockney sparrow project. As you may be aware these birds are suffering in London and we aim to use this race as a good opportunity to raise awareness of the great work the RSPB are doing for our cockney sparrows.The 2012 race will be happening on 5-6 May and you can follow my progress on twitter, @earlybirders, as I will be tweeting regular updates on the race days to keep you up to date with my progress.
To find out more about the race and how you can get involved check out our blog.
To give me any sightings that may be useful for the race or ask me any questions about the challenge please tweet me @earlybirders.(Please make sure that any rare breeding sightings are tweeted privately for the birds protection and not disclosed to the public.)
Many thanks Harry and Luke
Tim Webb's blog reumes next week with an update on Harry's challenge.