Current Winter Atlas Progress

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

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

Hi

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

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

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

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

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