Shrek scarecrow creator Todd Holmes has won his fourth consecutive title as the people's favourite in the annual Methven Scarecrow Trail in Methven, while the Cate and Smith families won a grocery hamper after correctly identifying all the scarecrows.

Trail spokesperson Gillian Heald said thousands of scarecrow hunters were out in the April school holidays, following trail maps around the streets of Methven to locate, and then identify characters represented by the scarecrow creations.

Organisers were thankful to the community support and impressed by how many scarecrow hunters manage to guess all the correct characters – this year 120 entries were totally correct which was a record, she said.

‘‘The experienced scarecrow makers are well used to adding clues to help identify their character and many participants who are seasoned and serious hunters resort to the assistance of a little online research to help in the identification process.’’

It was often an advantage to have a range of ages in the…