The Lincolnshire Bird Club

2008 Scunthorpe and North West Lincolnshire Bird Report

The 2008 report compiled by the Ornithological section of the Scunthorpe Museum Society is finished and now available for purchase. The report covers the Scunthorpe area from the Humber Estuary in the north to Gainsborough in the South and follows the Lincolnshire county boundary in the west to the edge of the old Ordnance Survey Map number 112 in the east.

2008 proved to be one of the best birding years in the area since the first report was produced back in 1973 with 215 species recorded. The report highlights the fortunes of these birds with a systematic list covering every species as well as accounts of some of the rarities recorded such as Broad-billed Sandpiper, Whiskered Tern and White-rumped Sandpiper.

Costs

Electronic copy (PDF file) is £4.00
Paper copy is £5.00 which includes post & packing

Back Issues available from 1973 – 2004, use contact address for prices.

For more details or to purchase a copy please contact:

Wayne Gillatt
8 Old Estate Yard
Normanby
Scunthorpe
North Lincolnshire
DN15 9JA
Email : birdreport10@googlemail.com

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

Well good luck to anybody who saw these birds ,I certainly did not-for reasons i wont go into now,but for a while ive been meaning to comment on how bad birding has become in the last 10 or more years around scunthorpe,mainly i guess i mean msq,the wader passage there in spring is now a non event,what was normal for there included;several green sand-rare now,not one this year!!,common sand,one seen this year,several years ago,greenshank,several years ago,in spring,not recorded this year,turnstones,sanderlings,little stints,wood sands,forget it!!all previous fairly regular,knots,no,no more,knot a sighting!!,blk tailed godwits,used to get small groups of them,not any more,temmincks stint,used to get that,as for tern passage-also a non event in spring-where previoulsly,artic/black were expected and got with even the odd little tern and several sandwich showing and little gulls-several,all non showers this spring,so im asking a serious question here;What is Going On?this is a question we have all been discussing at msq for the last few years,
Is it the blasting away of anything that flys in the sky in europe,particulary places like Malta etc etc-which must now be having an effect.
loss of habitat ??

climate change??
there is something going on,
all comments appreciated,
Regards roger.

roger the numbers or decrease in the numbers of migrants has been the subject everyone is talking about for a good while now. you are correct about the decrease which is so worrying to everyone, see colin smales subject and freddies excellent response to this very subject. colin and myself had a long discussion last spring at pyes hall. it seems to be the reduction in numbers is very severe in passerines migratery or not. large birds and raptors seem to be doing ok and are more prolific now than anytime i can remember in my life eg peregrine, egrets, avocets, lrps, kite, osprey, sprawk, buzzard, raven and dare i say gos. these are by far outweighed by the numbers of willow warbs spot fly cuckoo turtle dove wood warbler corn bunts yellow wag yell hammer house sparrow etc etc etc. is it lack of food, habitat, global warming, chemicals shooting or all of them. there seems to be a similar fall in numbers of moths perhaps our lepidoptera friends can give an incite with there views and also the info from the ringing side of the forum can give an incite on year on year fluctuations, will we ever find out the reasons, are there just to many humans now destroying everything, look at the oil disaster, illegal logging, slash and burn agrigculture. i think i will sign of now and quitely slash my wrists only joking, but genuinly what is going to be left for our grandchildren, what will they say when reading the likes of freddies excellent journel and then look at the pettyness of personal rivalries instead of what can be achieved by all pulling together. at least the rspb stands out as doing something as does the lwt which is probably the best wildlife trust i have come across but they need funds to achieve all this so if you are not members of either you darn well should be because the importance of the commercial side of is of vital importance yours terence whalin

HI,
I was talking to John Davidson,the warden at MSQ only yesterday,he said moths have fallen badly and thinks people converting their front gardens to car parks could be an important factor.so as you say we have to pull together,have a part of your garden for wildflowers-for instance,do more in the gardens for wildlife.its sad thou,Canadian Mike,a good friend of mine and everyone who knows him started birding only 5 years ago and even he has noticed the decline especially at MSQ,i wish hed been around when waders were in plentiful supply and terns and well almost any bird.ive told him what it was like,i will sign off now cos im thinking of those damm shooters abroad again.
Cheers,
Rog.

In reply to Roger's comments about the poor Spring passage of waders at MSQ in recent years, I think the reasons are rather more straightforward. All sites change over the years through vegetative succession and tend to become less suitable for waders which require bare mud for feeding. Meanwhile other sites are being created with ideal conditions for passage waders - presumably there was nothing at the Fiskerton Fen scrapes 10 years ago. There are only a certain number of waders passing through Lincs each Spring. If more of them stop over at newly created sites such as Frampton Marsh there will be less waders at MSQ.

Regards

Hugh Dorrington