The final week of the winter atlas

Hi atlasers

Last day next Monday and the clock is now ticking. I was out yesterday in Anderby/Hogsthorpe doing my last 2 winter ttvs. It was a grey day with a cold east wind and nothing startling to report. On the way back to Louth I called at Belleau Bridge and added Great Crested Grebe and Egyptian Goose for TF47. It was with great pleasure that I logged into the atlas website and looked at the UK richness gaps map to see that TF47 is now off the map and East Lincs is now clear.

We still have 51 ttvs to complete across Lincs so lets hope the weather holds up and everyone can get out and complete them by midnight on 28 Feb. The key ttvs are those needed to obtain minimum coverage in each 10 km square, there are only a handful and if anyone cannot complete them please let your RO know so that alternative coverage can be arranged.

Thanks to everyone for their efforts so far. Its interesting to see which squares have the most species richness so here are the top coastal and inland squares , purely for your interest.

Gib Point TF55 200
Donna Nook/Rimac TF49 165
Frampton TF33 149
Pyewipe/Killingholme TA21 144
Freiston TF44 143

Inland

Whisby Pits SK96 130
Covenham Reservoir TF39 130
Kirkby Pits TF26 120

I ought to add that the winter atlas hunt for records will continue after 28 February although this week is the last chance to get out and find missing birds; we'll continue encouraging birders to trawl their notebooks and any other sources we can think of to add missing species for at least the rest of this year. The cut off will come at the end of the year and the book should be out in just 2 years time.