The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Would it not be more advantageous to LBC members and of more immediate interest and value if ongoing ringing reports, at present sent direct to the BTO, were copied to the dedicated LBC 'Lincs Bird Ringing' website as routine practice after each ringing session (or monthly) throughout the year rather than their being 'saved up' as at present and published (as history) anything up to one and a half to two years later ? At the moment, details from one group are published as a separate Ringing Report and as an Annex to the Annual LBC Bird Report.......where birds ringed, for example, in early 2010 are included in the Mid-Lincs Ringing Group Ringing Report received by the LBC in August 2011, with the Ringing Annex to appear in the LBC 2010 Bird Report in late 2011 or perhaps early in 2012, some two years after the event.

This compares most unfavourably with sight records, of course : birds 'seen' (or photographed), say, in January 2010 in Lincolnshire will have been reported on the LBC website within a few hours in January 2010, noted by LBC members accordingly and occasionally leading to comment and discussion. I understand that the current procedure for ringed birds for at least one Lincs ringing group is for them to submit their records direct to the BTO, and the BTO forwards them to the Atlas.

It particularly rankled this summer, for example, when members of the Mid-Lincs Ringing Group had no fewer than 9 or 10 NEW Spotted Flycatcher contacts in Lincs .....ringed/confirmed as breeding (presumably via brood patches) involving adults/chicks/juveniles.....all of which went completely unreported on the LBC website : an extra whopping 20% of all LBC reported birds (45 - 50 ). Some ringers might urge us to consult the relevant BTO or Atlas websites for ringing records but that's not good enough....the records should be on the LBC website: after all, we are talking about birds ringed in Lincs.

The present system, and one which affects a whole range of species in the county, inevitably leads to a totally inaccurate skew on any ongoing topical LBC website comment or discussion eg. on distribution or probable breeding numbers.....especially galling when the extra details are available and on their way only to the BTO. Is that a justifiable procedure ?

What do members think ?......

Freddy

Freddy,
I tried to explain by Private Message but obviously failed. The 9/10 Mid-Lincs Spotted Flycatcher records have already been submitted to the BTO - be it a sighting for the Atlas, a nest record or a ringing record. I personally ring in excess of 1,000 birds a year. Everyone is entered on the BTO ringing programme IPMR (Integrated Population Monitoring Recorder) giving details of age, sex, wing length, weight, time, place etc. These records are then readily available to County Recorders, Bird Clubs etc. I do not have the time to duplicate this on the LBC Forum Ringing Section. Also, have a look at the number of "hits" on ringing related entries compared to the report section i.e. A report headed Interesting Cormorant Movement submitted by me on 12th April has had 127 hits - Roy's two day old report headed Kentish Plover has had over 500!!!!- there is obviously not a huge amount of interest in ringing from the majority of members. Your commitment to looking for Spotted Flycatchers is only part of the ethos of Integated Population Monitoring which encompasses CBC, Atlas records, nest records, ringing records etc. Combined together, a better overview of population dynamics is created and subsequently published. Keep up your good work, Freddy and I'll continue to contribute records to a nationally recognized science based organisation which are readily available to LBC Officers.
Stuart Britton (Mid-Lincs RG).

Stuart,
Thank you for your comprehensive and informative reply. I take your point re workload but as I said in my reply to your failed PM, I believe in the principle of Lincs ringing records ( or, OK, let's say at least a digest of the more interesting ones, especially those relevant to ongoing website discussion ) being copied to the LBC website.

In the meantime, as they say, we beg to differ and depart in peace.

Freddy
PS. It's quite true what you say about the ratio of interest re Bird Report hits and Bird Ringing hits on the web.....understandable, I think, but in the early days of a post it could easily be of the order 10 : 1, and probably much more on occasions.