The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Out and about today on the bicycle (covering 20 miles on the bike and 5 miles on foot) produced:

COWBANK DRAIN:
Kingfisher 1
Green Sandpiper 1
Pintail 1
Coot 4
Mute Swan 2
Mallard 21
Teal 10
Moorhen 6
Kestrel 3
Little Grebe 3

CROFT AREA:
Lapwing 619
Wood Pigeon 3000
Pheasant 16
Dunnock 9
Kestrel 4
Cormorant 3
Carrion Crow 4
Goldfinch 6
Chaffinch 93
Stock Dove 6
Wren 4
Jackdaw 70
Great Tit 21
Brambling 7
Barn Owl 3 (Inc 1 dark-breasted, 'guttata' race)
Blackbird 50
Greenfinch 8
Golden Plover 3730
Rook 420
Black-headed Gull 40
Common Gull 80
Collared Dove 5
Great Black-backed Gull 9
House Sparrow 26
Robin 5
Swan Herd - 13 (Unfortunately I didn't have my scope, they were too far away to ID)
Redshank 14
Reed Bunting 1
Linnet 3
Long-tailed Tit 6
Tree Sparrow 17
Goldcrest 2
Yellowhammer 2
Grey Heron 2
Skylark 14

HEATH'S MEADOW/SURROUNDING FIELDS:
Fieldfare 1000
Lapwing 80
Wood Pigeon 2000
Pheasant 6
Dunnock 3
Kestrel 2
Goldfinch 15
Chaffinch 30
Stock Dove 17
Wren 3
Great Tit 13
Siskin 3
Blackbird 160
Greenfinch 19
Golden Plover 108
Redwing 143
Rook 50
Yellowhammer 31 (Single flock of 21 birds)
Starling 150
Robin 10
Song Thrush 4
Common Buzzard 9 (inc 7 Soaring on the thermals together)
Reed Bunting 2
Tree Sparrow 10
Blue Tit 3
Little Egret 1
Magpie 4
Chiffchaff 1
Redpoll 5
Bullfinch 2
Mistle Thrush 5
Green Woodpecker 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Meadow Pipit 50
Lapland Bunting 1 (South)

GIBRALTAR POINT:
Short-eared Owl 1
Corn Bunting 10

All in all a great days birding

Cheers,

Richard

Hi Richard

Looked like a good days birding with an impressive 'green list'. However, I do think your Dark breasted Barn Owl sighting is certainly worthy of a further mention, especially considering its county (and in fact national) rarity status. If I'm honest I am a little surprised nobody has commented on the bird from the forum bearing in mind the above. Great sighting.

Are you aware if it has been looked for or seen since?

Just out of interest only 7 records are listed in The Birds of Lincolnshire & South Humberside (1989) as follows:

1962 Tetney 6 October
1969 Donna Nook 20 March
1974 Anderby Creek 19 January
1975 North Cotes 1-23 March
1976 Donna Nook 15 September
1979 Donna Nook 19 March
1979 Tetney 12 April

The only recent record I am aware of is a bird found dead at Goxhill on 20 November 2009 which had been ringed as a nestling on 10 July 2009 at Wommersom, Vlaams (Brabant), Belgium which was also the first foreign ringed bird to be found in the county.

Cheers

Matthew

Hi Matthew,

I had a follow up search the next day with Kev Wilson who was very interested in the bird, we had a good scan for it whilst we were doing a Lincolnshire Coastal Grazing Marsh survey (LCGM), unfortunately to no avail. There were a couple of Barn Owls in the vicinity, but nothing that looked anything like the bird i saw the day before!

Cheers,

Richard

Hi.
After reading your report on the Barn OwlI looked it up on Google and it seems there has been one photographed at the Ouse washes in Cambs. Have a look see what you think.

Cheers Val Hudson

Further to Matthew's entry, and adult female Tito alba guttata was found breeding with a "normal" male in Norfolk in 2008 by Colin Shawyer which had been ringed as a nestling in Holland the year before. It would be interesting to know what the progeny looked like.