The Lincolnshire Bird Club

The Cattle Egret was in a field on the right of Marsh Lane before flying to join the cattle on the left hand side of the road.

Amongst the seals were c 30 Dunlin, 10 Sanderling, a couple of Turnstone and c 30 Twite. In with the Twite was a very pale Redpoll - not sure of its specific identity, but it had a light rufous back, red crown, black bib and rufuous breast. The belly and flanks were white and fluffy with two rows of indistinct but thick dark streaks along the flanks. It was a similar size to the Twite, with which it was feeding on the saltmarsh. Unfortunately, I was unable to see the rump or the undertail coverts before it flew off.

Up towards Pyes Hall, there were c 1,000 Golden Plovers on the fields, c 5/600 Brents on the saltmarsh, a Rock Pipit, 2 Hen Harriers (female and juvenile male), a Merlin and c 20 Little Egrets.

Two of the Twite were colour-ringed and I will attempt to establish their origins.

Cheers,

David Cohen

I have now established the origin of one of the birds and attach details rec'd from Nick Wilkinson of the RSPB:

"Yes, the first bird is from our scheme. It was ringed as a nestling at Slaithwaite Moor nr Huddersfield, W Yorks, on 20th July 2010. It was seen at Titchwell reserve on 17th Oct and then again on 12th Nov, before returning back to Lincs at Humberston on 14th Nov, so is clearly moving up and down the coast.

We have been colour-ringing Twite in the south Pennines for the last three years as part of the Twite Recovery Project funded by RSPB and Natural England. This project is undertaking conservation work with landowners to halt (and eventually reverse) the decline in the south Pennines Twite population. The birds have been ringed as part of our monitoring work to assess the effectiveness of the recovery project. We have used unique colour-ring combinations so that we can collect data on the number of nesting attempts made by individual females in a single season. Records of these birds outwith this, however, are valuable for further understanding their movements and survival."

If anyone sees any further colour-ringed Twite, they can be reported to Nick at nick.wilkinson@rspb.org.uk.

Cheers,

David Cohen