The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Hi Terry

Just to reiterate Terry's point, I'm sure folk can divulge the location of passage birds without that being a threat. Certainly birds in potential breeding areas in spring/summer is more dubious territory, but I doubt to be fair that Goshawk's are under that much threat from eggers (considering their relative abundance on a UK scale), the problem is illegal persecution, still apprently endemic in the south of the county against large raptors. See the 'league tables' in: http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/Birdcrime ... 195085.pdf I'm not sure what the upshot would be if a pair of Goshawk's were found in the county, surely organising some sort of watchpoint would make illegal action against them more unlikely? Likewise for kites, rare harriers etc... Worth a debate in itself....?

cheers

Alex

_________________
Dr Alexander C. Lees
Lecturer in tropical ecology
Manchester Metropolitan University

Lab Associate
Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
Cornell University

http://www.freewebs.com/alexlees/index.htm
@Alexander_Lees

hi alex,
i think youve missed the point alan was making(i think),not hours put in but birds seen in an allocated time,which as i stated is irrelevant,
but to sum up from my angle.
their is no doubt goshawks are being seen in lincs,and more and more records are coming throu,without being patronising,birders such as Roy harvey and Andy simms are two of the nicest guys i know,I hate to debate with them especially,but i wiil hold my ground on this subject,and hope in time they will see what i and others have,and Alex thanks for the detailed rundown on recent records-most interesting,
yours,
Roger.

I also like to be armed with a hot flask of tea/coffee plus plenty of sandwiches when out in the field.

Up to a few years ago north Lincs was called South Humbs, it still is on most mail I get. Just to put the proverbial cat among the pigeons does that mean the Goshawk I saw last year at Beacon Hill north Humbs could actually be classed as north Lincs [Humbs]

GPC is keeping low and I don't blame him because he will be on an hiding to nothing if he egts involved in this very long running soap sorry thread

Phew!!!!!!!!!!

Is it that time already...

Max

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GETTING OLD HAS IT'S ADVANTAGES BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT THEY ARE lol

that is the same thing Roger! Some people put a lot of hours/years in and saw Goshawks and some didn't. You sum the lot to create a rate of observation, the unit might be: Goshawkyears-1. (!)



and that's fightin' talk....

_________________
Dr Alexander C. Lees
Lecturer in tropical ecology
Manchester Metropolitan University

Lab Associate
Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
Cornell University

http://www.freewebs.com/alexlees/index.htm
@Alexander_Lees

Re Gpc,i wish id done what sensible graham is doing,stayed /staying out of it.Their is another theory how the wind turbine got smashed in lincs and that is -a flock of Goshawks flew into it decimating the lincs population..................no???............ok.
rog.

Alex,
Re your query about the Stenigot bird(s) - I was made aware of their presence as I was then the Wildlife Liaison Officer for the area and there was some conjecture that they could be breeding. I saw one on two occasions, both in flight, but saw no sign of jessies or "close" rings. However, I was not aware until this thread that there was an escaped bird at Donington on Bain at about the same time. I can't confirm one way or the other.

And on Birdguides today.......
11:25 31/01/09 Gyr Falcon Notts Attenborough NR 10:36
probable white morph flew over cricket pitch; also Willow Tit and 6 Egyptian Geese

Heading for Lincolnshire???

_________________
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Andrew Chick
Website: http://www.forktail.co.uk/

I think away from a west coast headland in late winter/spring (where they are given the benefit of the doubt) the status (and identification) of Gyrs is completely obfuscated by escapes. One was photographed in a garden in Pembs a few days ago see: http://www.pembsbirds.blogspot.com/ but see this recent one in Lancs: http://www.lancasterbirdwatching.org.uk ... hp?4,24377 Loads get lost during the hacking process but equally we might expect the odd wild Greenland bird over on this side of the country and maybe the odd grey Gyr too.....

_________________
Dr Alexander C. Lees
Lecturer in tropical ecology
Manchester Metropolitan University

Lab Associate
Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
Cornell University

http://www.freewebs.com/alexlees/index.htm
@Alexander_Lees

For interest, the latest figures available from DEFRA are for 2007

Goshawk - 1557 in captivity, 217 deregistered during the year including 2 released, 13 lost and 31 unaccounted for.

Gyr Falcon - 612 pure bred in captivity, none appear to have been lost, but at least 2,200 Gyr hybrids in captivity and at least 28 Gyr hybrids lost during the year. As Gyr Falcons and all hybrids have been removed from Schedule 4 during 2008, we will never be able to access such figures in the future.

Alan

I spent the day working on a couple of projects at Tring on Friday and found time to take a few images of Accipiters. As everyone loves a quizz, take a look at the following skins:

http://www.freewebs.com/alexlees/accipiters.htm

and try identifying, ageing and sexing them. I don't think its that hard but it does show the range of intra and interspecefic variation in size in these two hawks.

Alex

_________________
Dr Alexander C. Lees
Lecturer in tropical ecology
Manchester Metropolitan University

Lab Associate
Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
Cornell University

http://www.freewebs.com/alexlees/index.htm
@Alexander_Lees

Ok - I'll have a go....I havn't got too much to lose....

A) Adult female Goshawk
B) Adult male Sparrowhawk
C) Adult Female Sparrowhawk
D) Juv Male Goshawk
E) Juv Female Goshawk
F) Adult female Sparrowhawk
G) Juv Sparrowhawk
H) Adult female Goshawk
I) Sparrowhawk

Andrew

_________________
-----------------------------------------------------
Andrew Chick
Website: http://www.forktail.co.uk/

_________________
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Andrew Chick
Website: http://www.forktail.co.uk/

I guess no-one else is going to partake, Andy got 9 out of 9 anyway, although G is a male and I is an adult female. I only picked skins of birds collected in the UK or neighbouring France, I could have picked skins of males Goshawk of small insular forms from the Med and compared them with big female Nordic Sparrowhawks and shown an overlap but that doesn't really prove anything. What the skins do show is that a) juvenile Goshawks are hyper-diagnostic and b) female Goshawks are really amazingly huge (some of the skins of the white Siberian race were amazing) and c) male Goshawks can be closer in size to female Sparrowhawks than they are to female Goshawks...

cheers

Alex

_________________
Dr Alexander C. Lees
Lecturer in tropical ecology
Manchester Metropolitan University

Lab Associate
Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
Cornell University

http://www.freewebs.com/alexlees/index.htm
@Alexander_Lees

Just to add some extra closure to this, Alan Ball remembered Graham's Goshawk record from Saltfleet on the 22nd October 1987 -two more were seen the same day at Donna Nook. An unprecedented arrival?

_________________
Dr Alexander C. Lees
Lecturer in tropical ecology
Manchester Metropolitan University

Lab Associate
Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
Cornell University

http://www.freewebs.com/alexlees/index.htm
@Alexander_Lees

Would have been fun to add in a couple of red herrings to your accipiter line up, Alex...

http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/birds/o ... _07_28.jpg
http://musingsonlifelawandgender.typepa ... d_hawk.jpg