The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Grainthorpe Marsh this afternoon:

1 Hen Harrier (ringtail)
1 Short-eared Owl
2 Merlin
400+ Brent Geese (inc a pale-bellied Brent)
1 Greenshank
1 Kingfisher
2 Lapland Bunting


regards

Chris

Where are the 'barren wastelands' you speak of Chris? They clearly aren't at Grainthorpe Marsh, which is where you seem to spend a lot of your time!

John

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Contact: recorder_south@lincsbirdclub.co.uk

Evening John,

It's just a tongue-in-cheek phrase I added as so often I'm down the Lincs coast and (from a rarity point of view) there's not much about whilst our illustrious neighbours Yorkshire & Norfolk are dripping in star birds (even more frustrating when you can see Spurn literally on the horizon!)
I'm know there's plenty of Lincs birders that have felt the same frustrations at times!

Seriously though, I do feel lucky to live on the coast and have access to the varied habitats & birds we do possess in Lincs.

I can think of some barren wastelands I have done some birding in though - a number of areas in the Lincs wolds (not all!) seem to be devoid of bird life thanks to intensive farming.

regards

Chris

The Lincs coast is not devoid of birds,it's birders it's short of.
Geoff

I totally agree that the Lincs coast isnt devoid of birds & if there were more birders then clearly more would be found. Look at the recent case of the Steppe Grey Shrike = more birders to the area = a visiting birder discovering the Saltfleet Haven Desert Wheatear.

The fact is that Lincs is a big county with only a small proportion of active birders within it, leaving large areas of the coast unchecked.

Of course a lot of our coast comprises thick sea buckthorn which we all know is hard to bird - no doubt one of the main reasons a lot of Lincs birders tend to visit tried and tested hotspots like Sea View, Stonebridge to Pyes etc.

regards

Chris

Evening. All good points - I think Lincolnshire is an excellent county for birding, one of the attractions for me is that you've a good chance of finding something because few other people have been there before you. You can't really say that about much of Norfolk. I always used to enjoy birding the Essex coast when I lived there because few people would bother going to say The Dengie or The Naze, when they could visit The Isle of Sheppey or Langaurd Point instead. It's even better here. You just have to look at the quality of the rarities in the past few years (Lesser Sand Plover, B-e Kite, Audouin's, Green heron, Sora, Buff bellied Pipit, bluetails etc) plus having numerically the first and sixth most important wetland sites in the country makes it quite a place (I don't work for Lincolnshire Tourism yet by the way!). If only we could now turn a bit more fenland back to how it used to be we could afford to keep the Wolds as they are for when we need to send someone a postcard.

John

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Contact: recorder_south@lincsbirdclub.co.uk

The following is most likely a question no one can answer but here goes.

Does anyone have any idea how many people watch birds in the 'field' in Lincs. I remember a few year back one of our members who lives in the south of our fair county complained that very few sightings were reported in his area, and that almost all the sightings came from the north of the county. Quite a few members replied to him including myself and we all more or less gave the same reply. Get out there like we do. I haven't been getting out much of late because I've been off it.

I take my hat off to those who go out regular as clockwork whatever the season or weather!

Kind regards

Max

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GETTING OLD HAS IT'S ADVANTAGES BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT THEY ARE lol