Terrigal trips turn up Twitcher’s Trophy

For the second year in a row, Andy Robinson has taken out the Twitcher’s Trophy at the Central Coast Group Birding NSW awards.

The Twitcher’s Trophy goes to the birder who records the most species over the calendar year in the Central Coast Local /government Area. 

The award was initiated more than 10 years ago to encourage more people to go birdwatching.

Robinson recorded a massive 293 species in 2024 breaking his own record of 284 sent in 2023, the club said.

Robinson worked hard to achieve this total but the point of difference this year was the boat trips from Terrigal. 

These trips involved Robinson going to the continental shelf about 50km off Terrigal. 

Despite battling wind, waves and seasickness, Robinson and a bunch of hardy souls managed to see a number of very rare seabirds with 54 species of seabird observed off Terrigal.

The Alan Morris Trophy was won by Graham Nelson.

The trophy is awarded to the person who enters the most surveys into Birdlife Australia’s data base. 

The award is named in honour of Alan Morris who is one the founding members of the Central Coast Group and is patron of Birding NSW. 

Morris has entered more than 20,000 surveys. 

The award was created to encourage birders to record their sightings to enhance the database. 

This database is a very important conservation tool. 

In 2024, Graham Nelson recorded 483 surveys out of a total for the Central Coast of nearly 3,000. 

This was a great effort, the club said.

Michael Scobie, Leader of Central Coast Bird Group, presented the awards.