The Lincolnshire Bird Club

At the conclusion of another most enjoyable and most energetic personal "Lincolnshire Spotted Flycatcher" project summer, I would express my thanks to those many Lincolnshire birders who went out of their way to assist me in my sightings during the summer period over and above web-posts, by means of extra follow-up pms, emails and telephone calls. In those various ways I was alerted to the latest area situation reports including active Spotted Flycatcher sites/nests with comprehensive site directions. Some birders also met up with me on site and even offered me home hospitality as well. Further, others took the trouble to expand on relevant points on the web so as to illustrate particular aspects of Spotted Flycatcher behaviour.

The list of such collaborating Lincolnshire birders is indeed a lengthy one (22) :

Hugh Dorrington (Dunsby); Andy Sims (Swanpool); Russell Hayes (General Lincs);

Dean Nicholson (General Lincs); Steve Lorand (General Lincs); Robert Carr (Woodhall Spa);

Dave Roberts (Marston); Greg Roberts, Mike Harrison and Russ Telfer (Baumber);

Ian Birch (Riseholme Lincoln); Eddie Shone (Normanby le Wold/Tetney Lock);

Kev Wilson (Gibraltar Point); Dave Worrell (Market Rasen area); David Morison (Fulbeck);

Geoff Williams (Hubbard's Hills, Louth); Derick Evans (Tetney Lock); Stuart Britton (Burghley Park);

Ian Smith (Willingham by Stow); Nigel Lound (Skegness/Gibraltar Point);

Tony Barnatt (Bourne area); Patrick Bell (Laceby, Grimsby).

Many thanks again, to one and all.

Andy Chick and his Committee can rest assured that friendly collaboration and cheerful cooperation among LBC members are flourishing (and also, I'm pleased to report, among members of the two Lincolnshire Bird Clubs).

In searching for Spotted Flycatchers in Lincolnshire in 2012 or following up web leads, I crisscrossed the county many times from eg. Tetney and Grimsby in the North, to Louth and Gibraltar Point in the East, to Gainsborough and Brampton in the West, to Dunsby and Grimsthorpe in the South.

The main concentrations of nesting Spotted Flycatchers were in the Wolds (eg. Normanby le Wold and Louth), Central Lincs (eg. Linwood Warren, Baumber, Horncastle and Woodhall Spa), the general Lincoln area (eg. Riseholme, Fulbeck and Potterhanworth) and the South-East (eg. Dunsby, Edenham, Grimsthorpe and Burghley).

All in all over the summer period and beyond (27th May - 2nd October.....18 weeks), I recorded 50 Spotted Flycatcher sightings throughout Lincolnshire.....all reported on the web, plus a similar number of dips, not reported on the web :
singletons, breeding pairs, post-breeding/pre-migration groups/migration stopover birds.....all believed to be different birds (but in appropriate cases for the same location groups at the end of the summer, at least with alterations or new additions). The total number of Spotted Flycatchers seen, excluding young in the nest but including juveniles, would be c.130 (bolstered as a figure by the post-breeding/migration stopover group numbers). Getting on for 50 Lincolnshire birders (some of whom had clearly contracted SpotFly Fever) contributed to the various Spotted Flycatcher threads on the various sub websites, with the total number of views amounting to over 12,600 (ie. averaging c.100 views a day, every day, for the 18 week period); a number of excellent photographs also appeared on the web..........all exhibiting a definite interest during the 18 weeks of the project in this endearing, small long-distance migrant Muscicapa striata.

Freddy