The Lincolnshire Bird Club

I have recently been in contact with a number of Lincs birders who had reported Spotted Flycatchers on the web earlier in the summer. In addition to my own experiences regarding several disappointing follow-up visits, a quite depressing picture has emerged.

I feel that by consolidating the information I have received on the subject of Spotted Flycatcher follow-up reports so far this year (mid-July), one can have a clearer overall picture of the effect that the late spring/early summer overcast, wet and cold weather has had on the birds at a number of Lincs sites. I am grateful to those Lincs birders for taking the time to pass me relevant details as set out below.

We must, however, recognise two important facts. First of all, it's not all bad news : Spotted Flycatchers have bred successfully in certain areas throughout Lincolnshire despite the weather ; we merely highlight below some of the apparent failures. Secondly, Spotted Flycatchers are resilient and persistent birds and with regard to those not weakened by the weather/insufficient food intake, most will try twice, even three times, to produce young during the summer. If the weather improves, we may yet see re-appearances at previous 2012 sites mentioned below and even at new ones : it's not too late......yet ! (In this respect , see the footnote to the Willingham by Stow report below.)

1. Riseholme College, near Lincoln..........(IAN BIRCH)
Traditional site - incl. nesting in 2010 and 2 successful broods in 2011.
c. 30 May - returned to a small area where SpotFlys had nested successfully at least in 2010 and 2011.
I visited twice soon afterwards but with Nothing to Report (NTR).
c. 20 June - 1, possibly 2, SpotFlys relocated c. 200 yards away "on the west side of the Church".
I visited twice soon afterwards but NTR.
5 July - "No sign of the Flycatchers at any location in Riseholme. No doubt the weather is against the birds".

2. Linwood Warren, near Market Rasen..........(DAVE WORRELL)
Traditional site incl. successful nesting in 2010 and 2 broods in the Warren in 2011.
June : regular reports from DW of the birds appearing by the main entrance gate.
I visited 3 times mid-June to early July but NTR.
5 July - "I have found no evidence of breeding and I haven't seen them on my last 3 visits".

3. Laceby Golf Club, near Grimsby..........(PATRICK BELL)
A pair was seen on 18/19 June visiting an Ivy-covered wall but "despite at least half a dozen subsequent visits, I have seen no sign of them at all : more victims of the wet weather?" "I fear the worst."
I visited the site on 30 June but NTR.

4. Doddington Farm Shop gardens area..........(RICK BENNETT)
A traditional site, incl. successful breeding at least in 2009,2010 and 2011.
I saw a bird flycatching there on 27 May and 10 June.
Rick Bennett made subsequent visits incl. one hour (15 June) "none seen" and forty-five minutes (24 June) "again failed to produce any SpotFlys."
One assumes the bird(s) moved on after my visit on 10 June.

5. Belton Park, Bellmount Woods..........(DAVE ROBERTS)
12 May - " 2 Spotted Flycatchers....the earliest I've seen."
5 July - "I didn't find the Spotted Flycatchers at Belton again."

6. Dunsby, near Bourne..........(HUGH DORRINGTON)
Traditional village sites for many years. Hugh found 3 nests in 2012. I have visited all 3 nests.
11 July - Nest One : (only) " 1 bird fledged 2 July."
...........- Nest Two : (only) "2 birds due to fledge any time now."
...........- Nest Three : "3 (?) young due to fledge around 15 July."
"I put the low fledging rate down to the abysmal weather."

7. Brampton,between Lincoln and Gainsborough; and Fillingham, near Gainsborough; and other locations..........(DEAN NICHOLSON)
In 2011, I visited 2 successful breeding sites in Brampton and 1 in the Fillingham area.
Dean wrote on 5 July :
"It has been a total washout on the SpotFly front....no SF in Brampton AT ALL this year ( the first time in 10 years I've not recorded any birds in the hamlet) and also no birds in the usual garden in Fillingham for the first time in 4 years? The St. Helens church (Willingham by Stow) birds are present and breeding in the adjacent garden; however, they have been seen very infrequently in the churchyard for some reason this year though, for some reason. I saw a single SpotFly singing on wires between the pub and the church in Stow but it didn't hang around.....presumably failing to attract a mate.
The bad news is not confined to Lincs either....2 other regular pairs I know of over the River Trent in Rampton and Tresswell respectively have also not appeared this year for the first time in recent years."

8. Willingham by Stow Churchyard and area..........(IAN SMITH)
Traditional site area incl. birds breeding in 2011 in a garden adjacent to the Churchyard.
11 June - "There is at least 1 pair, (possibly 3 birds seen) in Willingham by Stow Church grounds."
I visited 3 times between mid-June and early July but NTR. Andy Sims and Rick Bennett saw 1 bird on 19 June.
6 July - " I haven't seen the birds for 12 days. I've searched the area regularly : I can only conclude they've moved on. I suspect this terrible weather has taken its toll."
9 July footnote :
"Better news."......Ian watched a Spotted Flycatcher in the Churchyard for 30 minutes, "visiting the garden next door 3 times but with no food." (Nesting again?).

9. Fulbeck..........(DAVID MORISON)
Through a neighbour, David was being kept informed about a brood in the neighbour's garden in Fulbeck(as reported on LBC Sightings on 25 June). I received the following details from him on 16 July :
" Alas, the news is not good. The female was obviously brooding and the male was visiting the nest often with food but suddenly both disappeared about a week ago and have not been seen since, nor any fledglings. The nest box hasn't been checked as yet, but I'll let you know what is found. It is a mystery but may be the late nesting and bad weather have caused a problem".
Obviously, it could have been predation, although David's reasons may well be nearer the mark, and the young died in the nest.

10. RAF Waddington - It's worrying that by mid July, Brian Eke and Matthew Strahan have located just 1 Spotted Flycatcher (1st July) in the vast RAF complex. In previous years, Brian has located up to 10 breeding territories and he and I located at least 5/6 breeding territories in 2011 (17 July). I'm confident more Spotted Flycatchers will be located there soon, but will they amount to previous year's figures?

Finally, as a footnote to this post on "apparent" Spotted Flycatcher behaviour, one must add a caveat/warning: although birders, including me on many occasions, may spend up to an hour at a previously reported Spotted Flycatcher site without success, it doesn't necessarily mean that the birds have moved on.... eg. when the female, the only one of the pair to brood, is sitting tight on eggs, I have noted that the male will sometimes feed 50 - 100yds away from the nest; just visible, high up in the canopy, interspersed with periods of inactivity - just perching. The female, if she leaves the nest to feed or be fed by the male, will leave and return in the blink of an eye...... straight out and straight back in at speed. One glance away from the nest and you would certainly miss her. So, it is possible on occasions one may declare after an hour or so of fruitless waiting...... "the birds have moved on"...... but it may not be true. On the other hand and on balance, several long fruitless visits to the same site, especially by more than one birder, would presumably indicate that the bird has indeed moved on.

Presumably, national/regional research is already underway on the mortality rate of the young insectivorous, and other, birds - young in the nest. newly fledged young - plus general breeding failures during this dreadful spring/early summer cold and wet weather: so, we could well learn comprehensive details, including re Spotted Flycatcher, in due course.

Freddy

Many thanks for the Spotted Flycatcher update, Freddy. It does appear to be a bad news summer for Spotted Flycatchers and,indeed, many other species. I look forward (with some trepidation) to national breeding bird surveys for 2012.

Regards.

Richard...

Thanks for your comments, Richard, and for expressing AN INTEREST in my scribblings. After 60+ "mute" views, it does help to diminish any "Why bother?" feelings one might have.

Freddy

Hello Freddy,

Rather belatedly, I have been in touch with the lady at North Kelsey Moor - who's garden you visited in 2011. She confirms that Spotted Flycatchers bred there again this year with 5 young successfully fledged.

Regards

Roy

That's good news, Roy, especially with such a high fledging rate. In Lincs this summer, we've had fledging rates as low as 1 or 2; .... 5 is exceptional, given the bad weather we've been having.

Anyway, the Met Office is now forecasting that the Jet Stream should be moving N soon....perhaps better weather is not far away? There's still time for Spotted Flycatchers to have another brood.

Freddy

Hi Freddy, sadly Spot Fly is too rare in Lincs to be properly recorded by the BBS here. In 2010 it was found in only one of 64 Lincs 1 km squares surveyed, or 1.6%. That compares to 4.8% for the UK as a whole. The 2011 BBS report has just been published and it shows that Spot Fly was recorded in 4.6% of squares in 2011 (147 out of 3,222) and the population is down 50% since 1995.

You can download the 2011 report off the BTO website here : http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/bbs

I've extracted the BBS data for Lincs from 1994 to 2010 and it shows a decline from around 9% in Lincs from 1997 onwards. If you send me your email address by pm I'll send you a table of the data and you can take your own view but it looks to me as if the decline has been over 80% in Lincs since 1995.

Phil,

Many thanks for your most valuable and timely post re the BBS reports. I have downloaded the 2011 report plus a number of past reports and I went through them concentrating on Spotted Flycatcher. As you say, the trend downwards over the years (as highlighted elsewhere in other papers) is quite depressing and to see it year on year is even more so.

The whole problem of the decline in numbers of our long-distance migrants is most alarmingly presented in Michael McCarthy's brilliant and important book "Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo" (John Murray 2009). He shows quite vividly how each year millions of migrants pour into Britain in a singing cascade that heralds the arrival of Spring, the epic migration journeys of these (mainly) tiny creatures being one of the wonders of the Natural World.

But what does the future hold? Many of these birds like the Cuckoo, and the Spotted Flycatcher (beautifully monographed in its own chapter "Understatement on a Fence Post), are now failing to arrive eg.in Lincolnshire (and the UK as a whole) in the satisfactory numbers of even recent years. Clearly the long-considered timeless and seemingly permanent migration mechanism is running into trouble.....some of the migrants are disappearing as 'regular' local species : will they now become "rarities"? The fact that Chris Grimshaw (up to 14 August) and Geoff Williams (up to date), both seasoned and regular birders, failed to see Spotted Flycatcher earlier this year (as recently noted on LBC Bird Sightings 13 August) is perhaps indicative of what the future may hold for many birders regarding a variety of spring migrant species or even what the present holds for some birders..........think Turtle Dove, think Cuckoo, think Wood Warbler,....... think Spotted Flycatcher!

Freddy

I have been following the fortunes of 4 Spotted Flycatcher nests in the village of Dunsby this year and have been recording the data through the BTO's Nest Record Scheme. A summary of the results is as follows:

Nest 1. A single chick fledged on 2nd July but was probably predated soon after. The nest contained the remains of 2 chicks which appear to have died about 5 days earlier.

Nest 2. 2 chicks fledged successfully on 15th July. There were tiny skeletal remains of 3 chicks in the nest which must have died soon after hatching.

Nest 3. 2, possibly 3, chicks fledged successfully on 22nd July

Nest 4. The same parents as nest 1 but in a new site. They were sitting on 4 eggs by 14th July and had fledged 4 young on 12th August.

In summary, Spotted Flycatchers were slow to start nesting in 2012 and, in Dunsby, never laid more than 4 eggs. The poor weather killed several chicks in the nest during June and July but a second brood was more successful. No nest predation was noted.

Hugh Dorrington

Hugh,

A most interesting review of the nesting history of the 3 Dunsby Spotted Flycatcher breeding pairs (4 nests) you so diligently recorded throughout the summer. The fledging rate is a stark indictment of the appalling weather conditions the birds endured, week after week. So, in those circumstances, we must consider c.9 successfully fledged young a real achievement. Thank heavens the weather turned for the better in mid-July and second broods throughout Lincolnshire were less 'weather-beaten'.

Your nest No.4 pair, as you know, were the subject of my eulogy in "Multiple Jeopardy : Spotted Flycatchers 2012" (also on Bird Chat).....brilliant news that they eventually triumphed against the odds to fledge 4 young on 12th August!

Thank you once again for inviting me to be part of "The Dunsby Spotted Flycatcher story 2012" and for arranging for me to visit all 4 nests......a much appreciated gesture.

One final thought. When SpotFlys nest in clusters (eg. 2 - 3 - 4 or more nests in a restricted area such as a village) they can later form 'consolidated' inland post-breeding/pre-migration groups at a specific local site, such as seen at Baumber and Woodhall Spa this year, and Woodhall Spa.....and Linwood Warren last year (and in previous years). I wonder if such a specific site exists in Dunsby......eg. in the Churchyard, around one of the large properties with extensive grounds we visited, at the edge of Dunsby Fen or even at the local STW. Have you come across such a group locally in August or September?

Regards,

Freddy