The Lincolnshire Bird Club
http://lbcarchive.co.uk/forum/

Gib 25/05/09
http://lbcarchive.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10124
Page 1 of 2

Author:  Kev Wilson [ Mon May 25, 2009 8:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Gib 25/05/09

Imm male golden oriole singing in E Dunes or 20 mins this morning before dissapearing.

Serin flew south down E Dunes on Sat 23rd and four different Med gulls around over last week.

Cheers

Kev

Author:  Stephen Routledge [ Wed May 27, 2009 11:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

Considering the importance of this site on a county and national scale there seems to be very little reported from here on this forum.


Steve

Author:  Dean Eades [ Wed May 27, 2009 5:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

It has been mentioned before Steve ?

Author:  Andrew Chick [ Wed May 27, 2009 6:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

To be fair to Kev, he does upload important news, and I think it unfair to expect him to post news everyday?

Andrew

Author:  Stephen Routledge [ Wed May 27, 2009 7:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

I agree Kev has other priorities and has an NNR to run,but is he the only person who works there?All the other major bird Obs around the country have daily reports and i am sure our readers would find it interesting to read what has been seen at this important Linc's site.


Regards


Steve.

Author:  Kev Wilson [ Wed May 27, 2009 9:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

Hi

I am glad this issue has been raised - we are desperate for people to get involved with the observatory who can help with general census work - in general we only average counts of the census area once a fortnight which is pretty poor. It is mostly reliant upon contributions from staff (two) before work and visits from one birder who stays for three days at a a time every six weeks or so.

I appreciate that most of the birders on this forum have their own favoured patches to watch and others probably don't fancy counting wrens and dunnocks when they could be watching BBRC birds in other counties with their free time, but one competent birder contributing coverage on one visit per fortnight would be a real bonus - if they could then additionally write a brief synopsis for this forum then that would also be ideal !

Recent scacre birds eg serin and golden o were found by two birding mates from Southampton over the weekend.

Todays report - c 1000 swift south while managing cattle for 7 hours.

Cheers

Kev

Author:  Brian Eke [ Thu May 28, 2009 12:42 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

Kev. How deep was the Sh*te then!!

Have'nt been since the course, have a new body to tread in.

When would you suggest then?

Lots of love.

Brian.

ps. You still owe me a trip down here for your advice. :D :D :D

Author:  Steve Lister [ Sat May 30, 2009 3:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

Kev Wilson wrote:
I appreciate that most of the birders on this forum have their own favoured patches to watch and others probably don't fancy counting wrens and dunnocks when they could be watching BBRC birds in other counties with their free time, but one competent birder contributing coverage on one visit per fortnight would be a real bonus - if they could then additionally write a brief synopsis for this forum then that would also be ideal !


Kev


If the observatory could provide basic accommodation for visiting birders then I am sure a lot more would spend time there. I certainly would.

Steve

Author:  Chris Grimshaw [ Sat May 30, 2009 9:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

I spent just over an hour at Gib today. Picked up the annual report for 2006 and look forward to reading that later. 2007 is also in production at present apparently

Visit number 104 today believe it or not and I do send in my sightings!

I parked in the North car park and after spending a few minutes in the Tennyson Sands hide walked down to Mill Hill and on to the beach. Despite the glorious sunshine you needed your winter woollies and not shorts and shirt as I went

Best bird of the day was a Grasshopper Warbler between Mill Hill and the beach on the left hand side as you walked to the sea

Willow Warblers also in the Mill Hill area still singing
Whitethoat about half a dozen singing

A few Swallows and House Martins about

Sanderling, Dunlin and Oystercatchers on the beach

Author:  Kev Wilson [ Sun May 31, 2009 8:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

Brian - thanks for your response - sorry I've not been over your way - generally if I get further west than Skegness these days its for a meeting or I'm going on holiday !

Steve - an annexe at the Wash Study Centre used to be available for self-catering accommodation, but uptake dwindled to a mere handful of people over the course of a year so rather than have it dormant, it was turned obver to other purposes some time ago. I think most visitors today do expect reasonable standards of accommodation and the old days of basic Observatory bunkhouses seem gone. Many Bird Obs are rebuilding or refurbishing to meet contemporary expectations from visitors (and Environmantal Health standards !) and a realistic charge has to be made to cover more extensive catering/cleaning staff/facilities. We have had some good take up from birders coming on weekend breaks this year, when the centre is not booked by schools or other groups and we hope to expand on this, but it is based on full board accommodation, including all meals. I will discuss with colleagues and come back to the Forum with some dates and costs for future availability. If there was sufficient interest, it would be good to allocate a period in the autumn for using Gib as a base for birding here and the wider Lincs coast. Could provide great coverage of this underwatched area, provide some good Lincs ticks and be a good social.

Chris - we are grateful to all who contribute field sheets to our daily log.

Cheers

Kev

Author:  John Clarkson [ Sun May 31, 2009 10:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

In 2007 when some Lincs birders were green listing a few of us wanted to cycle to Gib and stay there but my ebquiries revealed that a minimum group of 14 was required!. I'm sure there's be a greater uptake if that were relaxed

John

Author:  Alastair Carr [ Mon Jun 01, 2009 7:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

I went with my father, and a few other 'birders' for the EHST (Extreme High Spring Tide) and Lincs Trust didn't even have enough money to buy a new computer! I should know, I offered to do some tech stuff for them, free of charge!

The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust is built on a nucleus of paid staff, e.g. Kev Wilson, with the cytoplasm (and other parts of a cell) made up of volunteers.

It does not make economical sense for there to be less than 14 members.

Yes, I grant you, if they had the relavent operations manager with the experience, they could decrease the required numbers, yes. But, as I said before, these are hard times.

Author:  Kev Wilson [ Mon Jun 01, 2009 9:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

And I'd always thought of myself as an endoplasmic reticulum !- thanks Alistair for the compliment.

Yes, there is a minimum booking situation based on a break-even point. Changes to security arrangements have meant that it is more likely that individuals can book a room if free when another group is occupying the Centre, providing that group is not a school.

Kev

Author:  John Clarkson [ Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

Alastair

It doesn't make sense to have a minimum booking of 14. That means that if 5 groups of 4, or 3 groups of 2 and a group of 9 want to book they cannot. Of course there must be a break even point but this should be averaged out over a season. This system excludes families and small groups of friends. Open it up, take a chance and see what happens!

John

Author:  Kev Wilson [ Tue Jun 02, 2009 3:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gib 25/05/09

John

Brief response for now - I do intend to discuss with colleagues at the centre as mentioned earlier.

The min booking number of 14 does not sound right to me. Five groups of four would be a good booking providing they coincided on the same dates.

Kev

Page 1 of 2 All times are UTC [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/