The Lincolnshire Bird Club

due to helping my daughter move home on monday and rspb meeting mon evening i did not find out about the black stork till 10.30 tues morn still carried out a lonely patrol from 11.30 till 16.00 hrs mostly on foot between stonebridge car park to horseshoe point checking fields - dykes etc along the way. Had a very pleasant half hr or so with colin smale whom was photographing at pyes hall
Hi colin nice to put a face to a name met several other birders but no joy. Still very quite bird wise with highlights as follows
2 whinchat
3 wheatear
several flocks of linnet
blackcap
whitethroats
lots swallows / martins no swift for a wk now
many kestrel
merlin
2 marsh harrier different female today this one had all its primeries and imm male
male sparrowhawk
buzzard
6/8 greenshank
lots little egrets but nowhere near 153
got home about creamed, didn't know you could have so much fun and keep your clothes on,
yours suitably tired

Terry Whalin

Hi Terence, nice to meet you too, no doubt see you down there again. 3 marsh harriers just after you left, two of them had a fight while perched atop one of those outer sea buckthorn bushes. One of the marsh harriers caught me by surprise later on, came right over hide but I had set exposure for white birds (egrets) not dark harriers aganst a white sky but, managed to pull a pic back of some sorts. Kingfisher turned up but that was about all really.

Ye gods lads and lasses,
unwisely i went black storking on foot. This was an unwise decision, but based upon how the bird disappeared for long periods at cawton when i was there, down dykes ditches etc when 30 or 40 birders could not find it in a known area. I decided that a car dash would not be fruitful unless you actually caught it in flight. I was late away for reasons explained and the pager said heading for Lincs from Spurn over the Humber, hence to late for the flight, so the lonely foot patrol began in an area i knew reasonably well.
Well Yarmouth would have been quite a trot. Anyway i re-read the pager message and it also said heading south east over Spurn towards Lincs which is south west so it may have headed straight over the wash to Norfolk never touching Lincs at all, so that is probably why no one saw it in flight in Lincs hence the lonely foot patrol began ( if you follow the logic ).
Still if i had found it in the dykes around Pyes Hall etc it would have been a great find and all worthwhile but thats birding for you a fantastic and frustrating hobby that the occasional find makes the effort put in rewarding.
My feet have now cooled down and should be ready for the next installment as the migration sets in, so lets hope for suitable winds with favourable rewards as i resume THE LONELY PATROL.

Terry Whalin