BTO in Lincolnshire

BTO Atlas in Lincs - Number of species required to achieve 75% confirmed breeding

2011-07-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

Many Atlas supporters have been hard at work since the breeding season commenced and the ttv coverage for the county is now virtually completed. The key task left is to confirm as many species breeding in each 10km square as possible.

So how are we doing in this respect in Lincs? Here is a graphic showing those square in yellow where we have yet to reach the 75% target for breeding species confirmed. The number in each square is the number of species that need to be confirmed to hit the 75% target. We are doing pretty well compared to adjacent counties and 36 of our 79 squares are already over 75%. A further 12 are within 5 species.

We are now getting down to the wire with only a few weeks left to confirm breeding. Please check out what species are missing in your local squares by clicking on "My local gaps" on the the BTO Atlas homepage and then chase down the missing species. Its great fun and will add an extra enjoyable dimension to your birding. There are still many unconfirmed common birds, particularly warblers and now is a great time to confirm most species. If you need any guidance on using the website and adding records please contact your BTO regional representative (http://btolincs.blogspot.com/).

Heres to some good birding and some excellent coverage for Lincs when the Atlas book is published in just udner 2 years time."

Some tips on confirming breeding by birds of prey

2011-06-06T10:44:00.001-07:00

In this last summer of the BTO Atlas, we are trying to confirm breeding by as many species as possible. The main atlas period ends on 31st July, but we can continue to confirm breeding into the autumn. This is especially relevant to birds of prey, several of which don't fledge until July or August.

The tips below for three species – all now widespread in the county – are based closely on guidance prepared by Rob Clements for Kent but are equally applicable here. So why not take the opportunity for some relaxed late summer birding and give it a go? Bear in mind that you should avoid disturbing the birds, especially important for Hobby, which is a Schedule 1 species for which disturbance at the nest (without a licence) is an offence. Having said that I saw my first newly fledged Common Buzzard today. Most species seem to have advance their breeding by at least a couple of weeks this year so please keep that in mind.

Common Buzzard

Confirming breeding for Common Buzzard is not difficult! These are large and noisy birds; the adults can be seen carrying food items back towards a nest-site through-out the day, and newly-fledged young are almost continuously noisy, plaintively calling for food from hedgerow trees and woodland edge. Look for areas of mixed woodland and farmland. Find a good viewpoint on a sunny morning in July or August. Scan the horizon for Buzzards, listen for their calls. If all the activity is distant, move nearer, preferably without disturbing the birds. Juvenile Buzzards are much whiter than adults, and lack the clearly defined dark terminal bands on tail and under-wings.

Sparrowhawk

Best looked for in July/August. Most blocks of mature conifers hold breeding Sparrow-hawk Walk around quietly, listening for young Sparrowhawks plaintive begging calls, or the chattering alarm calls from the adults. The successful nest is quite obvious, with thousands of white down feathers, all over the nest and surrounding branches. The woodland floor below is splattered with white droppings, as if some-one had been flicking white paint all around an area of 100 sq yds or more. Watching from a viewpoint, the adult Sparrowhawks can be seen approaching the wood carrying bird prey, often diving in from high up.

Hobby

Look for successful breeding Hobby in the period from 1st August to 20th September. Start off from a viewpoint giving a good view over an area of woodland edge and hedgerow trees. Choose sunny weather between 9.00am to 4.00pm. Look for family groups of Hobby hawking insects or chasing each other around in spectacular play. Closer up, you can hear a young Hobby keeping up almost continual calling, a higher pitched version of Peregrine begging calls. Juvenile Hobbies are easily identified, with buff edging to the feathering on the upper-parts and an absence of reddish "trousers." Adult Hobbies regularly visit the fledged juveniles, bringing bird prey and chasing off intruding Sparrowhawks and Crows. If you've not seen anything after an hours watching, move on and try somewhere else. Hobby nests are often approx. two miles apart in open farmland in southern England, though it may well be more in parts of Lincolnshire.

Time to start confirming the early birds

2011-04-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

We are now 2 weeks into the summer atlas period and we still have a lot to do. One of our key tasks this summer is to confirm as many breeding species as possible in each 10k square and enter breeding evidence into the atlas database either through roving records or a timed tetrad visit.

So what should we be looking for? Well many of our commoner residents are already in full swing gathering nest material and building nests (code B , probable breeding) and starting to lay (code ON, confirmed) but some breed earlier than others and April is a good time to look for them. Please note you don't have to actually check the nest to see if there are eggs there. Just observing behaviour that indicates the bird is sitting is sufficient.

Take Rook for instance. Birds are now sitting on eggs and they'll be easy to confirm as ON over the next week before the already sprouting tree leaves make them less visible. Rookeries are easy to spot driving around. Over the last week I've cleaned up on Rooks in East Lincs confirming them in the last 3 missing squares TF44 Benington Seas End, TF55 East Wainfleet and TF58 Trusthorpe. Please check if they are missing in your square by looking at "Any square summary" and if they are get them now.

Several other species will be on the nest in the next couple of weeks including Mute Swan, Lapwing, Long tailed Tit, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush and Magpie. You might think these birds should be confirmed in every square in Lincs but they aren't yet so please check. Some species can be difficult to find on the nest but if you see them displaying now eg Lapwings ( code D, probable breeding)) note their location and keep checking for further evidence as summer progresses. Then look out for chicks in June (code FL, confirmed).

The easiest confirmation for Thrushes is carrying food to a probable nest site (code FF). Mistle Thrushes tend to fledge in early May so try not to miss them feeding. Song Thrushes have a longer season giving more opportunity to see them. At the moment in East Lincs we have Mistle Thrush unconfirmed in 3 squares, TF35 north of Boston, TF47 Alford and TF56 Skegness. Song Thrush is missing from TF58 Mablethorpe but someone has a stake out with a territorial bird in their back garden so fingers crossed.

It can be a lot of fun, absorbing and deepen your interest in birds to observe their breeding behaviour so please get stuck in and enjoy it. You can do it in your garden, town/village, local 10k square or anywhere in Lincs or the UK and Ireland. If you are going away for Easter think about checking your holiday square as you may well be able to add valuable records, particularly in remoter regions.

North Lincs Summer Bird Race

2011-04-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

There will be a North Lincs Summer Race to record the number of breeding birds in a square during a 24 hour period between April and 2^nd May inclusive.

To take part email donandchris@hotmail.co.uk to register the square of your choice go out for the day and record as many breeding
birds as possible enter your visit as Roving Records by Saturday 14^th May.

Available squares: SE70, SE80, SE81, SE90, SE91, SK89, SK99, TA01, TA10. TA11, TA20, TA21, TA30, TA40, TF09, TF19, TF29, TF30, TF39, TF40
Do have a go and Good Luck

Which are the most important breeding species in Lincs: Insights from BBS

2011-03-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

The Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) is an annual survey which monitors changes in bird populations from year to year and trends over longer periods. It started in 1994 and took over from the Common Bird Census. Its big virtue is that it is based on randomly selected 1 km squares across all counties of the UK. It therefore provides a more accurate estimate of populations. The BBS is used for important conservation purposes such as determining red, amber or green conservation status. In 2009 volunteers surveyed a total of 3,243 squares across the UK of which 51 were in Lincolnshire.

All the data is available to anyone who wants to access it by country, region or county at this link: http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/bbs/latest-results

There are 2 sets of data: first the number of squares each species has been recorded in, by year in each geographic area, second, the total numbers of each species counted by year in each geographic area. You can copy and paste the data into excel and analyse it as you wish.

So I've been messing about with the data to answer the question above. From the conservation point of view; which are the relatively most important species of conservation concern in Lincolnshire compared to the rest of the UK? I took the data and computed the rate of occurrence for all species I believe have bred or probably bred in Lincolnshire in the last 10 years and expressed that as a percentage of the rate of occurrence across the UK as a whole. Species occurring at a rate of 50%greater than the rest of the UK were designated as important in Lincolnshire. The conservation status (red or amber) of each species was noted from the RSPB Birds of Conservation Concern 2010 Report (available on their website).

Birds of conservation concern status is determined by the rate of fall of populations as measured by BBS and the atlas from the early 70s to 2009. So some relatively abundant birds like Skylark and House Sparrow are red because they are much less abundant than they used to be because of pressures arising from our industrial civilisation. Here is the list of species generated from this analysis.

The general UK trend of population change is also shown. It is possible that if we had a larger sample of BBS squares in Lincolnshire there could well be more rarer species on the list.

But the point is these birds are the jewels in our crown and we can make a better contribution to the overall UK conservation of these species by our efforts in Lincolnshire.

How can we do that. First by making sure that we record these species as confirmed breeders in as many squares as possible in the final season of the breeding atlas. Second by contributing to BBS and helping monitor annual changes in the populations of these birds. Third by supporting and lobbying for measures that contribute to the breeding success of these species through schemes like habitat management on Lincolnshire nature reserves and in the wider countryside, and the provision of nest boxes for those species which use them.

If you'd like take part in BBS which is primarily conducted in April and May have a look at www.bto.org/bbs and the more atlas roving records you can submit that confirm breeding for the above species, where they've not been confirmed so far, the better.

Look out for more posts about these individual species over the next few months.

Phil

Some musings on "citizen science" and rarities

2011-03-10T12:34:00.000-08:00

Reading Wikipedia today I discovered that the BTO is regarded as one of the worlds leading "citizen science" organisations. I was looking at definitions of birder, twitcher and ornithologist and it came as a surprise to me to find a new label. I started out as a science student so it feels good to be involved in massive projects like the atlas and BBS which have direct benefits for UK bird populations. Not sure about the citizen scientist description though; I prefer birder.

As it was a cold windy day I decided to do a bit of citizen science on my laptop. Two data sets available on the net have grabbed my attention recently. The first is the BBS data from Lincs available at www.bto.org/bbs showing how common breeding bird numbers have changed since 1990. Its fascinating. The second is the Birdguides Online UK Rarity archive of current defined BBRC rarities. Since the latter is only available by subscription I thought I would share it first. I copied and pasted all Lincs rarity records into a spreadsheet, sorted it by date order and then assigned every record from 1960 to 2008 to its 10 km square. For those interested a total of 251 records averaging about 5 a year, with a max of 14 in 1990 which was a Parrot Crossbill invasion year. I then mapped the results onto this 10km square schematic map of Lincs.

This produces lots of questions and as in stock markets past performance is not always a good guide for the future. For instance that 16 in the bottom right hand corner is Wisbech Sewage Farm which hasn't had a BBRC bird since 1983. Two squares above it with 4 is Frampton Marsh, shaping up to be one of our top hotspots. What are the chances of a Black Winged Pratincole there in 2011, what a hat trick that would be.

No one will be shocked that Gib is the best spot, though Donna Nook/Rimac run it close and the whole coast from Cleethorpes to Gib is good. I always wonder to what extent observer coverage, local weather variations, habitat, length of coast and funneling effects affect where birds are turned up. My dream is an experiment which would involve a series of days in which randomly selected 1 km squares on the coast and inland could be simultaneously covered in timed visits by a big team of observers to try and get a handle on why migrants turn up where they do. It would have to be repeated a number of times to generate sufficient data to get meaningful results. Perhaps there will be a chance to discuss the value/feasibility of this with BTO's professional scientists at our local conference at Riseholme on 16 April. If you haven't booked yet get a move on you don't want to miss out.

Finally where is the best place to live if you want to go for/find rarities in Lincs?

The picture left takes the data above and looking at each 10km square in Lincs shows the number of rarities accessible in a 5 x 5 grid centred on that square. The best place to live with a score of 139 is TF57. The village of Huttoft in that square is half way between Gib and Donna Nook and a couple of miles from the sea. Interestingly no BTO member or other serious birder lives in TF57 but George Rutter in Sloothby (TF47) is closest to the ideal position. Ed Mackrill in Welton le Marsh in TF46 is pretty close to it too, perhaps partly explaining why he has the biggest Lincs green list. Half of the Lincs top 10 listers live in just 2 squares TF38 and TF48 which are at the top of the triangle that runs from Louth to Theddlethorpe to Gunby Corner.

By the way if anyone would like the spreadsheet of the raw data (which runs from 1800) email me and I'll send you it.

I'll do the Lincs BBS data next time.

Winter atlas: one race ends, another one begins

2011-02-28T12:55:00.000-08:00

So here we are at the end of 4 years hard work winter atlasing and I thought it would be good to look at where we are on the last evening. As you can see by comparing this map to the one in the 21 Jan post below we've continued to add species over the last few weeks and all but a few squares have had well over 80 species recorded. In addition well over 99% of ttvs have been completed and data submitted; with a few stragglers still to come, our density maps will look pretty good when the atlas is published.

There is still alot of work to do flushing out more records and validating the ones we already have so the totals are bound to change but this is probably not far away from the final out turn.

This map represents thousands of hours of birding effort from well over 600 birders in Lincs and a very big thank you to everyone who has participated.

We now have a months rest and then we'll be into the final summer of breeding bird atlasing where the focus will be on confirming breeding records for as many species as possible. In fact if you are keen now is a good time to locate species like Tawny Owl and Long eared Owl which should be vocal at the moment. The latter seems to have declined substantially as a breeding species in Lincs but how many of us have been out listening for them? Not me so far I have to confess, but I'll be making a special effort during March.

Its also a good time to check out Rook nesting activity which is proceeding apace at the moment and can be easily seen before trees come into leaf. There are a few squares where Rooks are not yet confirmed. The 2 in East Lincs are Mablethorpe TF58 and Gib Pt TF55. I had the pleasure of seeing 2 pairs of Rooks nest building this morning in a new location in TF58 so I'll be keeping a close eye on them looking out for signs to confirm breeding.

Why not check out the atlas website to find out what species need confirming in squares where you live/have a patch or regularly bird. Click on the "Any Square Summary" Option, enter your square number and select breeding from the drop down menu and look for the species without the greenspot (confirmed breeding) next to their name. You may already have evidence that could confirm breeding, if not you may be the best person to get it so start planning how now!

The final week of the winter atlas

2011-02-21T03:38:00.000-08:00

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.

Only 10 days left for winter atlasing

2011-02-17T12:09:00.000-08:00

We're now in the final straight with only 2 weekends left to complete our ttvs and get in as many roving records as possible. There are still many common species to be found in most squares which have recorded less than 85 species so why not look at the map below and visit one of them if you get the chance. I'm down to my last 2 ttvs now, both in TF57 and doing a beached bird survey there on 26 Feb. Hopefully I'll find some roving records of missing common waders while walking the tide wrack.

But where did I see the bird above?

I have to confess I sloped off this last few days down to the Dordogne area of south west France with Rob Carr and Andy Sims. The starbirds were 2 Wallcreepers but for me the most memorable birds were the Hawfinches. I've seen small flocks of less than 10 Hawfinches twice in Lincs at Scunthorpe Crematorium in 1986 and Scawby in 2005. They are now very scarce and apart from coastal migrants I'm only aware of 1 record in the winter and summer periods in Lincs from 2007 onwards.

In France we had flocks of up to several hundred in the oaks above our head and I was amazed to hear how like an excited murmuration of starlings they sounded with their metallic ringing tick calls multiplied by many (large) beaks. I'd forgotten how chunky and tail less they look in flight and the whiteness of their tails tips which varies consideably in extent from bird to bird. It was fascinating to see them interacting and feeding and their amazing ability to pick an invisible perching position in leafless trees, which Andy's digiscoped image above clearly shows. When you can only see a couple of birds in a tree its always amazing when 10 fly out!

They are hard to find if you are not familiar with the call and especially when trees are in leaf but it seems Hawfinches are genuinely in big trouble in the UK while stable or increasing in Netherlands and France. The current atlas will reveal more about the position in England and if anyone can add records to the atlas please submit them as roving records. Are they still around in the NW Lincs/Scunthorpe area and why aren't they in the better woodlands in the SW of the county?

How many species are missing in each square?

2011-01-20T06:42:00.001-08:00

This is a complementary graphic to the one in the previous post. It shows the number of species missing from each square. A species is counted as missing for a square if it has been found in more than 50% of adjacent squares.

It is noticeable that some squares have excellent coverage with 0 species needed while ones immediately next door have poor coverage. A good example is TF05 at Scopwick where 28 species could be added while TF16, Martin, next door has 0 species to be added.

So if your local square is saturated why not get out and about and look next door?

Current Winter Atlas Progress

2011-01-20T06:03:00.000-08:00

Hi atlasers

Here is an update showing species richness by 10 km square for the county. The red squares are those where most input is needed to boost the list. If you look at "Winter Priority Squares" in the Atlas Data Home options menu you can see what common species are missing from your local square based on a count of in how many adjacent squares each species has been found.

Starting from the top the red squares are:

TA10 Caistor to Laceby where 18 common species are missing

TF05 Scopwick just north of Sleaford where 28 species are missing (the most)

TF31 Gedney Hill, 18 species

TF32 Holbeach, 15 species

The yellow squares need to be boosted to 80 plus. If your patch is in one of these squares and you can add roving records please do so. All records from 1 November to 28 February are acceptable for years 2007 to 2011.

I'd like to thank Tim Bagworth at Gib Point for going through the logs and adding missing records to TF55. Gib, with 193, is now where it should be, ranking as one of the best squares on the east coast. Thanks also to Keith Robinson, a stalwart at Covenham Reservoir who has added many missing species to TF39 in the last week.

We now have only 5.5 weeks left to find missing species and complete our winter ttvs so keep on birding. Remember if you need any guidance on using the Atlas website please contact your Regional Organiser, contact details above.

Winter Bird Race Winner

2011-01-15T10:26:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone who took part last weekend enjoyed it and thank you for your contribution.

Altogether 106 records were added in 36 squares and commiserations to those who scored none at all or even only 1, like me!

The clear winner was Andrew Henderson who was way ahead of the rest of the field with 11 species added in the Brigg square TA00, ranging from Canada Goose to Med Gull. Andrew shrewdly selected a squares with one of the lowest species counts in the county and hit a range of habitats in it to maximise his chances.

Andrew will be presented with his prize, a pair of bins, at our conference at Whisby on April 16.

There are still over 500 missing species across Lincs and only 6 weeks to find them. We'll publish more details about where to look for them in the next week.

Common Repolls

2011-01-12T00:54:00.000-08:00

I understand that there are a lot of Common Redpolls around in Lincolnshire. What is interesting is that I have only had one report in North Lincs. Therefore if you have seen any please could you enter a Roving Record or add it to Bird Track?

Thanks

Chris

Winter bird race: please get your data submitted

2011-01-11T02:10:00.001-08:00

Thank you to everyone who took part in the winter bird race and hopefully you had alot of fun and enjoyment in finding missing birds. We now need to identify our winner so please ensure your data is entered by midnight on 16 January.

Early indications are that many missing species have been added and we will use the updated data to identify the squares in Lincs that need the most roving input in the final 5 or 6 weeks of the winter atlas.

The winner will be announced through here on 22 Jan and the prize of a pair of bins, generously donated by BTO will be awarded at our conference on 16 April.

Winter Bird Race this Friday, Saturday and Sunday

2011-01-06T11:44:00.001-08:00

Well looks like we picked an appalling weekend weatherwise for the winter bird race but good luck to all the participators. Its still not too late to register a square if you want to take part over the next 3 days.

There was an interesting article on the UK winter atlas this week by Andy Musgrove of BTO on Birdguides http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=2475. It shows a UK wide species richness map and unsurprisingly the best square in England is Titchwell, Norfolk with 207 species.

The Lincs coast comes out well and the best squares in Lincs so far is TF49 Donna Nook/Rimac with 160 species closely followed by TF55 Gibraltar Point with 147. The best inland square with 129 species is SK96 which covers SW Lincoln and Whisby Pits. SE92 Far Ings is the best square in Humberside (which includes Spurn Point) with 130 species and further up on the Yorkshire coast TA09 Filey Brig has 164 species.

Good luck in getting out and finding those missing birds.

Phil

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T06:55:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and I look forward to seeing the results of the Bird Race at the end of January - if you have not yet entered there is still time!

Chris

Winter Atlas and Bird Race: latest position

2010-12-27T02:06:00.000-08:00

Despite the ongoing freeze up Lincs birders continue to add new winter atlas records and thank you to all concerned for your contributions. TF47 the Alford square has shown the best improvement but we still need to add at least 8 species to get up to the number recorded in the last winter atlas. Nine other Lincs squares, listed below, are still below species richness recorded in the last atlas:

North Lincs: TA11 Killingholme Pits, TA10 Caistor/Limber, TF39 Covenham Reservoir

East Lincs: TF55 Gibraltar Point, TF36 Snipe Dales

West Lincs: TF08 Toft Newton reservoir, TF05 Dunsby/Scopwick

South Lincs: TF42 Gedney Dove End/Sutton Bridge, TF31 Holbeach

The last mentioned square TF31 Holbeach has the poorest species richness, at 65 of any square in Lincs. At present the average richness is 97 species per square and the best is Donna Nook/Saltfleetby at 162.

All these squares are still availabe for the Lincs winter bird race which will be taking place in just over 2 weeks time, so if you haven't signed up yet please get in touch with me or Chris Gunn asap. We welcome all records so even if you don't want to take part in the race please check out these and your local squares to see if you can add any missing species. Follow this link if you'd like to see whats been recorded, what missing and contribute records http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/birdatlas

And a happy new years birding to all

Phil Espin

Lincs Winter Bird Race

2010-11-26T05:05:00.001-08:00

A Challenge

Lincolnshire Bird Race With a Difference!

A winter bird race jointly sponsored by the BTO and Lincs Bird Club will take place between midnight on Thursday 6th Jan and midnight on Sunday 9th Jan 2011.

We hope that everyone will be able to take part and have some fun while adding to our knowledge of birds wintering across Lincolnshire. The diagram above shows the number of species recorded in each square so far. The colours show progress against the numbers recorded in the 1980s atlas. The plan is to turn the map green.

What you have to do:

Maximum of 2 people per team
Select a 10 km square from the list below
Register the square with the Regional Organiser
Record the birds seen in the square in a 24 hour period between midnight on Thursday 6th Jan and midnight on Sunday 9th Jan 2011. Spend as much or as little time as you wish
Enter the list as a Roving Record in the BTO Bird Atlas by Midnight on Sunday 16th Jan 2011
If you'd like to take part without being part of the competition just advise your Regional Organiser you'd prefer to remain anonymous.

The winners

The Team who adds the most new birds to the Atlas in a 10 km square
Tie Break - in the event of a tie, the team that has the rarest bird added to its square will win, John Clarkson will be the judge - and his decision is final!
The winner will be announced through our blog on 22 Jan

The Prize

A pair of Opticron binoculars donated by the BTO
Awarded at the BTO Conference on the 16th April 2011 at Riseholme

To Select Your Square

Visit www.bto.org/birdatlas
Click on Winter Priority Squares
Your home square will come up and a list of species recorded in adjacent squares and missing from your square will appear. (This will give you an indication of how many birds you may be able to add to the square). To bring up the missing list for another square press shift and click on the square. To navigate from your local area, click on the outside of the grid.
Choose your square
Email the BTO Regional Rep to register your square after midnight on the 1st December 2010
Your registration will be confirmed by email

Note

Only one team will be registered for each square and it's first come first served; if your chosen square has been taken you will be allocated an adjacent square, if you have a preference please indicate your 2nd choice when registering.

Available Squares and contact details

Lincs North and West Chris Gunn donandchris@hotmail.co.uk

SE81, 91, 70, 80, 90 TA01, 11, 21, 00, 10 20 30 40, SK89, 99, TF 09, 19 29, 39, 49

SK84, 87, 88, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98 TF04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Lincs East and South Phil Espin philespin@live.co.uk

TF 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58

TF01, 02, 03 11, 12, 13, 21, 22, 23, 31, 32, 33, 42, 43

Phil Espin
BRO Regional Representative East Lincs

Making your listing count

2010-11-23T13:10:00.000-08:00

Hi

I'm Phil Espin, BTO Regional Representative for East Lincs and this is my first blog post. Most birders keep a list of what they've seen on their local patch and your list can have enduring scientific value. Our winter atlas is based on lists of species seen in each 10km square during the months of November to February and the winters of 2007/8, 2008/9, 2009/10 and 2010/11.

Since we've now been going 3 years we have already built up good information for many 10k squares from the efforts of our team of dedicated volunteers. However there are many species that can still be added in most squares and some squares are not doing so well. Our central team at BTO HQ at Thetford have come up with a new graphic to focus on these areas which can be seen at http://blx1.bto.org/atlas-results/rich_gaps_map.html . This brings up a map of the UK showing all tetrads with significantly less species than recorded in the 80s winter atlas.

There is only one hilited square in Lincs; TF47 which is centred on Alford. If you have a patch in that square we really need your records! Everyone can see what is missing from their local 10km square by going to http://blx1.bto.org/atlas and clicking on "Winter Priority Square" under "My Atlas Options" on the right of the page. This throws up a grid showing how many species have been recorded where you live and what species are missing from your square, based on whats been found in adjacent squares. When you've looked at yours, have a look at TF47 and compare and contrast!

Hopefully you'll feel like me that when you buy that big new Atlas book in early 2013, the last thing you want is to look at a species and see it absent from your square when you know darn well that it occurs and you even have a record in your note book. So please click on "enter roving records" at the top of the Winter Priority squares page and enter what you've got.

I feel bad about TF47, it seems to lack much in the way of habitat to attract wildfowl like Wigeon, waders like Curlew and farmland birds like Grey Partridge the 3 commonest birds missing. If you know a good site there, perhaps you'll join us on Sunday 12 December when a few of us intend to blitz the square and then meet up afterwards from 1pm onwards at the Blacksmith Arms , Skendleby (Tom Woods) to compare notes. The more the merrier, please drop me an email if you intend to come.

Phil

Welcome from your BTO Representative for West Lincolnshire

2010-11-05T04:06:00.000-07:00

I am delighted that we have now established a proper link between the British Trust for Ornithlogy and the Lincolnshire Bird Club. The BTO is the leading organisation for assembling and publishing data on bird populations. It is recognised as producing impartial scientific data. Whilst it has no direct responsibility for conservation policy, the bird data submitted by thousands of volunteers all over the country, is used by government and others to formulate policy in the best interests of conserving our wild birds and wildlife generally. Members of the Bird Club are well placed to contribute to this, simply by submitting records through Bird Track. However, where we undertake specific surveys (Wintering thrushes will feature in the 2011/12 winter) we encourage direct volunteering by Bird Club members. Please feel free to contact me at any time if you would like to know more. I will make occasional posts on this site to keep everyone informed.

(Photo by David Bailey)

Peter Overton

Regional Representative

West Lincolnshire

01400 273323

bto@hillt opfarmholidays.co.uk Sponsoring the kestrel in the BTO Bird Atlas

Dear Atlas volunteer

2010-11-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

We are now a few days into the fourth and final winter of fieldwork for the Bird Atlas. Already 214 Timed Tetrad Visits and over 6000 Roving Records have been submitted online despite the wet and windy weather moving across Britain and Ireland. We hope you are full of enthusiasm to get out there and fill in gaps in timed counts and species lists. We are in a terrific position as we enter the final year and now just need one last push to complete coverage across the whole of Britain and Ireland.

First priority
So that we know exactly what remains to be done, as soon as possible, please submit any completed TTVs and Roving Records you have, and if you have TTVs allocated but fear you will not be able to complete them this winter, please let your RO know immediately.

You can help by:
- completing all tetrads allocated to you. If you can’t manage them please contact your Regional Organiser as soon as possible;
- take on new tetrads to ensure the minimum of eight tetrads are completed in every 10-km square. Early winter TTVs should be competed by the end of December. Input your records promptly after your visit so we can assess coverage through the winter and respond to any gaps;
- fill in gaps in species lists. We need comprehensive species lists in every 10-km square. The species richness map will help you highlight priority areas http://blx1.bto.org/atlas-results/species-richness.html.

Tools to help you
There are a number of tools online which will help you with your atlas work and to make the most of your time in the field.

Priority Squares
Select the 10-km square you are atlasing in and you will be shown a list of species recorded in the surrounding 10-km squares but not in your selected square. This will help you to think about species that you might be missing in your square. After logging in at www.birdatlas.net click on the Priority Squares button in Data Home.

Regional results
Select your region from the drop-down menu and look at the wide range of maps. The species richness map shows the squares that still need help – look for squares coloured white, yellow and orange. It’s really useful to apply the ‘Actual species richness’ button to show the number of species recorded; although the square may be coloured red there could well be more species to find. This is certainly the case in Ireland and parts of Scotland where coverage in the last Winter Atlas was limited.

Click on the ‘Tetrads surveyed for TTVs’ and you will see the number of tetrads already surveyed for winter. Consider taking on tetrads in 10-km squares where fewer than eight tetrads have been completed.

You can access the ‘Regional Results’ from the ‘Latest Results’ menu on the atlas homepage or using the link http://www.bto.org/birdatlas/latest_results/regionalresultsnav.htm

Any Square Summary
See the list of species recorded in any 10-km square or tetrad. Access from Data Home.

A reminder why we are doing all this
With such a head long rush to get all these species lists and TTVs completed its easy to forget why we are doing this. Of course, the Atlas book will be a landmark publication that you can rightly say you had a hand in. But the Atlas is more than a book, and already we have used provisional atlas results to identify species that need dedicated research and conservation action. So please help in these last months of the Atlas to make this the most thorough and complete Atlas yet.

Thank you for all your help so far. We hope you have a great winter atlasing and see plenty of good birds.

With kind regards

Dawn Balmer (Atlas Coordinator)
Bob Swann (Scottish Organiser)
Brian Caffrey (Irish Organiser)
Simon Gillings (Atlas Development)