The Lincolnshire Bird Club

4 previously recorded sites visited today (Sun) where I had failed to connect this year : 2 successful sightings.

1. Riseholme, near Lincoln - nothing to report (NTR).

2. Willingham by Stow Churchyard (S of Gainsborough)...4th visit; finally successful. Spotted Flycatcher loafing in bare-branched tree on border with neighbouring garden. Presumably, female on nest with eggs in garden nest, pair having been seen recently (Dean Nicholson). Dean also reported that their previous brood of young were predated by a Grey Squirrel in late June.

3. Owlet's Plantation (N of Gainsborough) - NTR.

4. Spridlington.... 3rd visit..2nd site, as reported by Russell Hayes on 27th June, at entry into village from Lincoln, c.250m from the (1st) Churchyard site. 2 Spotted Flycatchers perched on wires and then feeding fledglings (ie. disappearing in opposite directions with food)....Thanks, Russell

Freddy

Dean Nicholson contacted me yesterday to say he had discovered a nest in Brampton containing 4 Spotted Flycatcher young about to fledge. The nest was in fact one used last year by SpotFlys and which I had seen when the lady of the house kindly invited me in to view it. Dean had thoughtfully arranged with the housekeeper for her to expect me this morning and, if no-one was at home, directions were given for me to locate the nest. Fantastic!

I arrived at the house this morning and spent at least 10 minutes watching the adults coming and going on wires. As no-one was at home, I was able to locate the nest and admire the 4 young which are almost on the point of fledging. From a safe distance, i watched the parents feeding their youngsters. Many thanks to Dean for his thoughtfulness !

On my way back to BBH, I called in (again!) at the Doddington Farm Shop Gardens, where I had seen a SpotFly on 27th May and 10th June but nothing afterwards in the bad weather. I stayed around for half an hour or so but nothing appeared. I then decided to visit the Hall Kitchen Garden which looked very promising. However, the surprise was that a Spotted Flycatcher appeared in the top dead branches (shaped in an arc) of a Sweet Chestnut Tree about 50-75 yards beyond the Kitchen Garden in the Hall's formal garden. It was clearly a favourite perching area for it returned there several times on/off in the next 30-40 minutes. One interesting observation was that when it was flycatching it was flying up almost vertically and quite high rather than straight out from the branch as SpotFlys usually do. Clearly, that's where the insects were.

Freddy
PS. I also spent some time at Aubourn Hall 'Stables' and St.Peter's Churchyard (a former traditional site but no longer used by Spotflys for some years) : just checking today.

One at Coot lake, Whisby this afternoon.

Hugh

This morning, having been given location details by Hugh (...thanks ), I followed up his sighting of a Spotted Flycatcher at Whisby yesterday afternoon. I spent a couple of hours in the area, incl. meeting up with N. Hykeham birders Bruce P. and his wife who had read Hugh's post and understood a SpotFly was 'somewhere' at Whisby,......but there was nothing to report (NTR).

However, as with all these NTR SpotFly checks, there was plenty of interest elsewhere, especially Butterflies, incl. my first Gatekeepers of the year.

It must be the case that Hugh's bird was 'passing through'. Had it been nesting, doubtless Grahame H. et al would have picked it up sooner. Interestingly, it was in an area where Hugh and I saw a small family group of SpotFlys 'passing through' late summer/early autumn last year.

Freddy

Adults with at least one juvenile at a private small holding near West Torrington. Last year two pairs bred at this locality.

James

Greg Roberts alerted me to some Spotted Flys this afternoon in Baumber churchyard. I called in at 5.30pm for a few minutes and soon located them feeding at the eastern end of the churchyard. Numbers were hard to establish at first but in the end concluded there were at least half a dozen but all appeared to be adults, sadly no juveniles seen. I concluded they must be failed breeders passing through?

Mike

Thanks to Mike for his most interesting Spotted Flycatcher post......the only drawback was it meant no Sunday lie-in ( Mind you, I suppose for us layabout Saga pensioners every morning is a potential lie-in/sleep-in ). Anyway, up at 05.45, arriving at Baumber Churchyard c.07.15.....to find Russ T and a birding colleague already there. They had already seen 1 or 2 SpotFlys (plus photos) but there were certainly no signs of multiple activity ....or even much activity at all.

I had a brief glimpse of a probable SpotFly, then everything closed down. Walking in the field beyond the Churchyard so as to view the bordering trees with their branches in the sun, I did see 3 or 4 LBJs rapidly leave the Churchyard tree tops (singly at intervals) and fly over towards the Old Rectory garden area.

About an hour passed before at c. 08.30 from the field, I eventually had reasonably close views of a Spotted Flycatcher in a Churchyard border tree, and I called to Russ and his colleague to join me. They both had views of my bird as it then flew across to the top of a tall tree....only to see it also disappear towards the Old Rectory garden area . There was still a breeze blowing and it certainly wasn't 'warm' : not ideal conditions for flycatching....hence the total lack of typical SpotFly activity.

On reflection, I think that the group Mike saw on Saturday afternoon, stayed loafing around in the tree tops early on Sunday morning, then (for whatever reason) left the Churchyard at intervals from c.07.15, making for the Old Rectory garden area, with most of them gone by 07.45 or so....until our final bird left at 08.30. As they are still in the area , they may have returned to the Churchyard later in the day.

Freddy
PS. Then home, a cup of tea, a change of clothes ....and off to the Lincs Branch of BC for the Open Day at Chambers Farm Wood, Bardney.

Freddy, no sign of any more Flycatcher activity today so i think the party may have moved elsewhere !

Will post if i see any more turn up through the autumn .

Cheers Greg

Freddy

After I left you, on way home I found 2 Spot Flies in the paddock behind the Rectory. Good views for 10-15 mins. Went back around 1700 - nothing seen.

Russ

As questions regarding Spotted Flycatchers have been raised in connection with sightings, it makes sense to discuss them here rather than on Lincs Bird Chat.

Russ,
For obvious reasons paddocks have a great attraction for SpotFlys.....as previously mentioned on the web by Hugh D in Dunsby. So, that's where our birds were heading early yesterday as they left Baumber Churchyard flying towards the Rectory area (interestingly, singly at intervals and not as a group).

Greg and Mike,
Your Baumber Churchyard group of at least 'half a dozen' birds is the first Lincs "post-fledging"/"pre-migration" group reported this year. The rather solitary bird (except for its mate) of the spring and early summer now becomes companiable and can form groups.

Last year, we had 2 reported groups of a similar or higher number, and as such groups can well stay in the same area for a few days, I was able to catch up with them soon after the original sightings (we are not sure how many days the Baumber group was present before Greg sighted them) :

1. 9 August 2011 - Woodhall Spa. Originally reported by Robert Carr....."consisted of at least 5 birds, extremely active, moving around in all directions."

2. 31 August 2011 - Linwood Warren (near Market Rasen). Originally reported by Stuart Britton as a smaller group but on my visit a few days later, the group had built up to 8 definite, probably 10 birds. Again, the birds were extremely active, dashing around a small area of trees, even involving what looked like 'aerial tag'....nothing like the usual feeding activity jizz of single SpotFlys.

Rather than perhaps a 'failed breeding group', the Baumber birds were probably one of these regularly reported (throughout Britain) inland "post-fledging"/"pre-migration" groups.....occasionally, seemingly comprised of just adults...."building up condition and moulting prior to migration"(BWP), and whose group number can total even up to 20 birds. One is left to wonder whether there are traditional sites for these 'local birds' to assemble and whether indeed Baumber Churchyard is one, where previous assemblies have been missed, or at least not reported.

Freddy

Single spotted flycatcher in back garden harrowby road, Grantham

I have received news of a pair of Spotted Flycatchers raising 4 young in a garden shed in Cleethorpes where the nest was built on top of a box of wood screws.....and the young successfully fledged and flew today.

Nesting in a shed would have meant shelter from the elements and also that the usual urban avian patrolling nest-predators (Magpie/Jackdaw) couldn't spot the nest; and clearly cats and squirrels were also absent......a great success story. .....just like the successful pair with their 4 young that fledged recently from a covered patio in Brampton.

Freddy

The Grimsthorpe Castle Park Ranger kindly arranged for me to travel along some Estate roads in my own car today. I spent several hours there, admiring much of its 3000 acres : what a really magnificent Estate it is with its enormous lake, avenues of specialist trees, flower meadows, staff cottages plus a very large Estate Office/ Workyard area.

I managed to track down one family of Spotted Flycatchers with recently hatched young in the nest being fed and brooded alternately. In addition, I must have had at least 8 sightings of Red Kite (...reports admissible from 1st August!) Butterflies in the sunny breaks included a few late Marbled Whites....... a great day out.

Freddy

Harlaxton Manor, near Grantham - Sun 5th August

Accompanied by my wife Inga and daughter Katy (who lives in Harlaxton), I visited my 3rd "Stately House" in the last 3 weeks or so today, after Burghley House, near Stamford ( 12th July - 2 Spotted Flycatcher sightings) and Grimsthorpe Castle near Bourne ( 1st August - 1 Spotted Flycatcher sighting). Would Harlaxton Manor also deliver.....on its one 'Open Day' in the year?

Few houses in the country can match the splendid approach to this Gothic pile with its 149 rooms.....a straight mile long drive across a Bridge spanning part of the inevitable Lake and under an enormous Gatehouse to the House and Gardens.....and, after visiting the House itself, it was the garden areas which, after a 20 minute search (while the ladies were happily chatting in the Conservatory), that delivered a Spotted Flycatcher. It was (as expected, in the overcast conditions) flycatching in the highest branches of a very tall tree in the Upper Woodland (viewed from a large lawn area).....non-stop for some 10 - 15 minutes, with a probable second bird in attendance.

Freddy

Another Spotted Flycatcher success story from Hugh D, in Dunsby. The pair which lost all their young save one in the prevailing atrocious weather at the time and which relocated across the road to build anew......well, the 3 or 4 young in the nest should now be fledging later this week. There's no doubt about it....SpotFlys are tenacious and resilient birds, against the odds....successful breeders in the end!

Freddy
PS......The same success story at Willingham by Stow, where Dean Nicholson reported that the first brood had been predated by a Grey Squirrel.....well, (via Ian Smith) a second brood has now successfully fledged with at least 2 youngsters. How about that !?