For those who probably do not need reminding Gull-billed Tern is a very rare bird in Lincolnshire;
the first was reported from Gibraltar Point on August 30th 1967 (M L Chambers, D Elias) -- this was at a time when lots of Gull-billed Terns were being accepted from fly-by seawatches including the sequences from Selsey Bill that were subsequently questioned and the number of records in years from 1980 onwards fell dramatically; considering the optics available in the late 60's compared to those used now and observer experience with the species there must be a strong possibility that several of the records during this period if seen today would be subject to greater scrutiny. Against this background the species has declined in Northern Europe as a breeding bird in the same period but also note that most of the recent accepted records have been either from inland sites, where the species is typically found abroad, or have been long stayers as opposed to brief fly-bys. This is the text that was included in the BB report for 1967.
This almost cosmopolitan species whose nearest colonies are in Denmark (it used also to breed in the Netherlands and nested in England in 1950) suffers from rather a high proportion of rejections, but, as Sandwich Terns Sterna sandvicensisset several traps for the unwary, the committee has to be particularly cautious. Even so, 1967 was a milestone year with a total of 17 records from ten counties and one island group. The three spring ones were not exceptional, but the wide scatter in late August and September pointed to an unusual westward deflection from the continental seaboard. The three Norfolk ones were all products of long sea-watches which revealed a large immigration from the North Sea of ducks, waders, gulls and terns. The ten years 1958-67 produced a total of about 73 records involving over 80 individuals.The second record was at Donna Nook on August 4th 1969 when one flew south (SL)
to date the only, sort of twitchable, record concerned a first-winter bird that remained at Covenham Reservoir from September 16th to October 14th 1972; Found by Mick Mellor I seem to recall him telling me that he was at first disbelieved by the Lincs old guard as the bird disappeared over the adjacent fields for long periods and people missed it on a few dates before it was eventually confirmed by the heirachy. A black and white photo appeared in the 1972 British Birds Rarities report link below; In those days twitching was not what it is now! working the coast at Rimac on October 1st with the late Derek Robinson, the bird had already been there two weeks, we bumped into Mick who told us about the bird; being on our way home we called in and had excellent views of what has long been the only multi-observer GBT in Lincs --multi being a qualified term, I note that GBT appears on the list of only 6 observers in the Lincs Listers database
I have uploaded a copy of the photo by Keith Atkin in the old rarities album
http://www.britishbirds.co.uk/wp-conten ... 0_T55A.jpgSince the 1972 record there have been only two more seen by 3 observers until this year's bird seen by only one more Lincs birder and 2 visitors -- so the nest long-stayer may attract more than 7 speculative observers
Witham Mouth September 7th 1975 (R C Broadbent, F Butwright)
Trusthorpe Sept 3rd 1978 (JRW)
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