Lincs birds not reported on here so I will do it.

Anthony Bentley · **Posted:** Wed Jul 24, 2013 9:11 pm

So lack of reports again on the forum, Surprise surprise. So I thought I would shed some light on some of the birds reported

Lincolnshire Female Two-barred Crossbill 1ml se/of Saltfleet n/of Rimac just s/of Seaview Farm on ground at 15:15 but no further sign this evening.

Lincolnshire No further sign reported 1st Summer Baltic Gull 3.5mls ne/of Brigg sw/of Middlegate Road in field e/of A15 layby (same field as the Thayer's) by 14:00 but 2nd summer Capian Gull. This Gull was found on Tuesday by Tom Lowe. Yet news only came out Wednesday morning.

Congratulations to the people of South lincs on the report of the White-rumped Sandpiper.

Mike Tarrant · **Posted:** Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:49 pm

In response to your comments about the Two-barred Crossbill at Rimac today, Anthony, may I tell you that I was involved with Phil Espin, Peter Rowarth and Barry Clarkson, who found the bird, in trying to relocate it in the buckthorn, but to no avail. I know that Barry felt it best to alert local birders to help try to relocate it and then spread the news once it had been refound. He cannot put the news on the Lincs Bird Club website as he is not a member. He did, however, report the sighting to Rare Bird Alert, so what more do you want? The only extra information I can give you is that the bird was initially seen well and heard calling but appeared to fly off ESE over the dunes.
Mike Tarrant

Phil Hyde · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:16 am

Where's the nearest stand of Larches Mike ?
Phil

Phil Espin · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:25 am

I'm tempted to say Willingham Woods! I couldn't think of any within 10 miles. My attitude to this is is that I will put news out if I have seen the bird or the finder asks me to. In this case unfortunately neither applied. I respect Barry's instinct on this , he was the one trudging the dunes in 80 degrees with his coat and big camera!

There are plenty of these birds about at the moment so more people searching the Lincs coast would probably pay dividends.

John Badley · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:38 am

Any reason why Barry C isn't a member? Would be great to have him on the forum.

John

Matthew Harrison · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:13 am

After 124 years, Two-barred Crossbill finally makes a reappearance in Lincs - what a great find.

As for Baltic Gull, is this not a potential first for the County, or is anyone aware of any previous acceptable records?

Matthew

Phil Espin · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:21 am

Perhaps we need an honorary one year membership for the person who finds the best bird in the county each year. To be nominated and voted on by the members on this forum on 31 December. With Pacific Swift and Two barred Crossbill I suspect the front runner at present would be Barry. Obviously other people will have different definitions of best bird.

Mike Tarrant · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:42 am

I am pretty sure there are several larches in Hubbard's Hills in Louth. I remember when I was a schoolboy my biology teacher took us round there, pointed out my first-ever larch and described it in great detail. I don't recall his mentioning Two-barred Crossbill, though. Perhaps those larches are still there unless the council has had them cut down for safety reasons!
Mike Tarrant

John Badley · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 12:44 pm

Honorary membership is a nice idea, but I can't understand why any keen birder in the county wouldn't want to support their county bird club financially through membership. It's not much (less than the cost of the bird report currently - although that may change) and you get full access to this fantastic forum, which remains the highest rated county bird club forum in the UK (according to Fatbirder).

How about a LBC 'find of the year' trophy, which gets engraved with their name and the winner gets to keep it for a year? LBC members can vote for it annually?

We could also have a sweepstake for the next 'first for Lincs'. We've got one for the RSPB reserves (currently 16 people waiting for the 250th species to occur and their chance to win £16!).

John

John Clarkson · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:10 pm

I agree wholeheartedly with John's first paragraph. But as we all know these rarities are the cherry on the icing on the cake. I'd rather see an award to the MEMBER producing most cake. I can think of several who flog their local patches 300+ days a year, for years on end, thereby producing real data about the status of birds in Lincs. A much more valuable contribution surely?

Sweepstake? Hmmm! I'll leave you to disentangle this one John!

Under the Gambling Act 2005 this qualifies as a lottery.

Most sweepstakes are small scale and are run in work places, where they are classed as ‘work lotteries’ under the Gambling Act 2005 or by people who live together where they are classed as ‘resident’s lotteries’ or in private members clubs where they are classed as ‘private society lotteries’.
You do not need a licence to run this type of lottery but the Gambling Act 2005 does set out some general rules about how these lotteries must operate and anyone organising such a sweepstake lottery is advised to read our guidance note on Organising small lotteries - November 2009 before proceeding.
http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/gf ... stake.aspx

Phil Espin · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:41 pm

JRC I am trying to square your comments about valuable contributions, which I agree with to some extent, with the cover photos of the last 5 years LBC reports.

I do not see that such an award should be limited to members, I would look upon it as promotional expenditure to encourage new members to join.

My attitudes to the laws on sweepstakes are similar to my views on the law of trespass!

Graham Catley · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:20 pm **Posts:** 1667

number one the larch -- teenage memories of the pythons -- sorry;

searched all of the larch trees in Laughton Forest today to no avail as I have done in many years; coastal birds are likely to be short stayers -- there are a lot of larch trees at Twigmoor woods where common crossbills feed but if you park there just watch who you wink at or you may get more than a leucoptera!

John Clarkson · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:22 pm

Surely No.9!

Stuart Britton · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 6:03 pm

I read Phil's first comment and John Badley's "find of the year" with dismay- not all of LBC members are rarity chasers (though by the look of things we're in a serious minority!). However, I was heartened by John Clarksons comments about the patch workers (which includes ringers) who's frequent and regular visits and subsequent records are of far more value when assessing the state of Lincolnshire birds.

Phil Espin · **Posted:** Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:19 pm

Stuart, I seem to recollect that only a few weeks ago Graham Catley was bemoaning the dearth of rarity chasers in Lincs at the Kirkby Pits Gull billed Tern. Now you seem to think we are over run with them, so who is right? We don't need a fight to settle this (apologies to Harry Hill), the obvious answer is neither.

As I may have mentioned before, LBC is an eclectic mix of birders with all kinds of interests in aspects of birding, the key commonality being birds in Lincs. I recognised there was room for more than one view in putting forward the idea. I suggested nominations and votes from members, what could be more democratic? If the members want something like that it'll happen, if they don't you won't find me carping, it was just an idea.

The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Lincs birds not reported on here so I will do it.

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