The Lincolnshire Bird Club

I have mentioned this in the past but the entries on the "Bird Reports" in the last 7 days have confirmed my beliefs. Since 8th June ther have only been 12 entries on the Reports section and 6 of those relate to comparatively rare birds. I suspect that the majority of the regular contributors and nearly all the visitors to the Forum are primarily interested in "listing" and rare species rather than recording the numbers and presence of all birds. To monitor significant demographic changes now that reporting for the Atlas has finished, it is surely more valuable to record all species, including the ubiquitous rather than concentrating purely on the Pallid Harriers and Buff breasted Sandpipers of this world.

When I found the Buff-breast Sand at Howdens Pullover I was actually looking for Little Tern, as they used to breed in the area, however I didn't see any at all. I also tried Gib Pt. but couldn't find any there either. I would have liked to have mentioned this on the forum but I believe we are not allowed to even talk about them in the breeding season? Although if things are really this bad then it should be discussed, maybe they are doing well but how do we know?
Also I didn't see any Avocet chicks at Gib, what's happened to them?

It mustn't be forgotten, Stuart, that a lot of members, including myself, submit records of common birds directly on the LBC Excel form. I hardly ever see a rare bird, especially as I don't twitch, but when I do I post. So the records are getting there but often not via this forum, at least from me.

David

It has been a dreadful breeding season along the coastal littoral Geoff and many protected species as well as commoner species have lost eggs or young, due to persisent rain cold and strong winds,
regards John.

Hi

I would like to support what is said by David Morison. I too send a monthly report directly to Colin Jennings. Most of the Birds that I report are common Birds and I don't go looking for specials though it is nice to see some now and again. I have always thought that it was probably mundain to report these more common Birds directly to the Web Site.

Malcolm.

Not to worry Stuart, several people send us their records each month by email. These sightings usually contain records, in spreadsheet format, of the common bird species. If anyone would like to send in their sightings please use the template that can be found in Lincs Bird Reports under Posting Sightings and Access to the LBC Database. If any help is required please get in touch.

Regards,

Colin and Sheila

Thank you Colin and Sheila and the other respondants - I am re-assured that the information re the status of more common birds is being recorded. To add to it - it has been a poor breeding species for nest box species in this area with broods of Blue and Great Tits smaller than on average and a higher mortality rate of well feathered young. A number of Tree Sparrows laid four eggs but most only raised no more than two young - let's hope this improves with 2nd and 3rd broods. I suspect both are weather related though lack of abundance of food cannot be discounted.

Much of the lack of insects and larvae (food) is also due to the poor weather with some notably poor hatches here on the coast
the only insects in profusion seem to be mosquitos. regards John.

It is good to see reports of common birds as well as rarities.
Personally I like to see posts about specific localities as it then gives me an idea of what I might see if I make a trip out. Having said that I enjoy all the posts, even though many make me envious . I particularly enjoy the posts where the debate over the identity of a bird gets down to the fine details of plumage and anatomy, they read like the birding equivalent of Newsnight.

As I rarely go watching as of the last nine months I'll put my latest "field" sighting on here from 13th June: was at Silica Garden centre and spotted three juv Mistle Thrush, one Grey Wag, one Robin, one Swallow, two Wood Pigeon and one C Dove in the field next door. This is my first time on computer for best part of two weeks, not been away I just couldn't be bothered coming on. Will bring the My Garden up to date later.

Cheers

Max

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

The dire breeding season is certainly not restricted to the coast; at Laughton Nightjars are well down in number and it is notable that birds sing for a very restricted period in the late evening, about 15 minutes, before presumably having to try and feed on the very low numbers of moths that are evident in car lights; on the night of 19th, a warm and calm night, I spent the hours of 19:30 - 15:30 on the 20th, in the forest but the almost total lack of night singing was truly eery having spent several nights there in the past listening to Nightjars, Woodlarks and owls; this year there are virtually no young owls calling, no Nightjar song until just before dawn and a worrying lack of many species. Tree Pipits are down by about 30% - 40% but more seriously I have only seen one fledged brood and the fact that most males are still in full song suggests that most do not have mates or have lost clutches which would not be unexpected given that I have never seen as much standing water as this month even in the middle of winter. Elsewhere many of our Marsh Harriers have failed this year and birds like Willow Warblers, Bearded Tits and other ground nesters, including all waders, seem to be struggling to raise any broods. It is maybe nothing in the long term survival of species but for localised birds on the edge of their range it may be the last straw.
As noted by John the only thing that seems to be making the most of the weather is the mosquito but I noted a good emergence of horse flies this week on a sunny day!

Stuart: in the last 4 weeks I have done 3 BBS surveys and 3 separate WEBS counts and not reported any of the birds recorded on the forum. Many others have done these surveys and few have reported their records either. Since you ask why, I would say that all of this data which goes to BTO makes its way back to LBC for inclusion in our annual report so doubling up the number of records, as Colin and Sheila put all forum records on the database, seems superfluous. Many people will be reporting all their records on Birdtrack and there is only so much typing that people can take. I do not see any reason to judge the motives of people sharing a common interest in birds using this forum, as long as they intend no harm to the birds concerned.

Geoff: There is no reason you should not report any Little Tern you see along the coast. All we ask is that you do not identify specific locations of breeding birds on the forum, for obvious reasons. I understand that so far this year there have been no real nesting attempts at the usual sites, presumably because of the weather. If you are in any doubt about the reporting policy for any particular species, please contact me to discuss it. Or raise it with any LBC committee member so your concerns can be raised at the next LBC meeting.

It seems obvious that this years unusual weather pattern is having a detrimental impact on the arrival and breeding success of many species. A better picture will be obtained in the fullness of time from all the surveys that are in progress that we all take part in. In the meantime the anecdotal observations that people choose to share here are certainly interesting but will inevitably raise more questions than answers.

Stuart,

Re the submission of some reports direct to the BTO as highlighted in Phil's post.......you will remember that in 2011 when I and a number of other LBC members had a specific interest in Lincs Spotted Flycatcher reports being posted on the LBC Bird Sightings web section, you had other ideas.

Towards the end of August 2011, I discovered that no fewer than 9 or 10 NEW Spotted Flycatcher reports for Lincs as recorded by your mid-Lincs ringing group had never appeared on our LBC website......some ringing records, others confirmed breeding sites.

In answer to my query, you replied that the Spotted Flycatcher records, as well as the vast majority of other Lincs ringing records, were going DIRECT TO THE BTO and there was no need even to copy them, or perhaps copy just a selection of the more interesting ones, to the LBC web ......despite there being an LBC dedicated sub-website for ringing records.....You added that putting them on/copying them ( presumably,even just a selected few) on the LBC website would cause..... UNNECESSARY REPETITION AND EXTRA TYPING WORK.

Freddy

Freddy and Phil,
Knuckles duly rapped.

Stuart, wasn't my intention to rap knuckles just point out what I see as the reality. I find your own ringing reports about Willow Tits fascinating as I do Freddy's single minded pursuit of Spotted Flys. The situation of Willow Tit and Spotted Fly in Lincs both require as much input as possible and a number of other birds could be added to that list like Turtle Dove and Corn Bunting for instance but we could easily get bogged down in Woodpigeons, Blackbirds and Chaffinches. Thats just my personal view and not aimed at causing offence to afficianados of the latter three species!