The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Reported on Bird Guides last night:-
Great Skua
Report Date: Thu 14 Sep 2017 17:26Date Seen: Thu 14 Sep 2017 17:10Site: Huttoft Bank Location: Lincolnshire Category: NotableDetails: 170 flew inland 16:25-17:10 (including a flock of 110)

Must have been an incredible sight. Why would they fly inland at Huttoft bank? I can understand them flying inland at a river mouth but not at Huttoft?

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Regards,

Andy.

Pink-footed Geese...?

A flock of 100 would I suspect be unprecedented in Britain? I assume no one knows from whence the report originated?

Unprecedented in Lincolnshire maybe Graham, but not in Britain. Birds of Fair Isle J N Dymond 1991 reports a flock of 189 in June 1985.

I spent 5 hours at Mablethorpe yesterday and didn't see 1! So who knows. If it's reported via Birdtrack we will get to find out but a lot of information service reports are not verifiable.

Mystery solved. This report was from Stuart Elsom, a birder from Cambs who was up at Anderby doing a survey that day and went to do a bit of sea watching in the evening and had all these Bonxies. He emailed me this morning having just got back from leading tours for Sunbird in South America for the last month. He is a bit miffed about the suggestion this report might have been Pinkfeet!

To make matters worse he says he filled out our bird report form on our website that evening and the information clearly didn't make it through to the forum so we need to check why not. He also tried to contact me, Andy Sims and Graham Catley but because he was away working didn't have all his contact details with him.

I first met Stuart 25 years ago on Shetland and he is as good a birder as you will find and better than most. Glad that this massive count is now verified and can go in the report.

I know its frustrating when we don't have full details for interesting reports but we have to work to improve our systems and hopefully our new website will help in that direction. Also intemperate comments while awaiting evidence are not always helpful and can lead to embarrassment for those who make them.