The Lincolnshire Bird Club

This received from David Bennett

"As a keen Derbyshire birder, I though you may be able to help me with a query concerning your club/society.

As a writer who has written a large number of articles for the local paper, before Xmas I started a weekly blog to diarise my experiences bird wise, (and some "this and that") and to share them with anyone who wants to read my blog.
I cannot say it has yet gone big time, but I do have some followers in the USA, so I must be doing something right. The blog is Allesbirdtree.blogspot.com.

I am researching an article about Bird club logos and having found yours on the net, I wondered if you could tell me anything about it's history, if there is one.

Some make interesting stories. For example, the Carsington Water Bird Club (which is my patch) has a Black Necked Grebe in it's logo, and that was chosen because it was the rarest bird on the water, the day The Queen opened the reservoir in 1992. (Not a lot of people know that!).

I'd be grateful for any help... the end result of this research will not be a book, but it will either go on my blog, or possibly an article which I will circulate round any interested bird magazine, such as Bird Watching which I have read since day 1."

Can any of our original founding members recollect how our Grey Heron logo came about?

Hi Phil,

We both must have received this email... I actually replied independently saying;

The Lincs Bird Club was formed in 1977 and the grey heron was chosen as the logo. At the time grey heron was a relatively common breeding bird in Lincs, with approx 400 pairs, and Lincolnshire was a comparative strong hold for this species in the UK. Since 1977 the number of grey heron's in Lincs has drops to approx 200 pairs (a 50% reduction) while the breeding population in the UK has roughly doubled... Why the Lincs birds have steady declined over this period is unknown.....

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Andrew Chick
Website: http://www.forktail.co.uk/

Cheers Andrew, I'm sure what you say is true. I was wondering whether members who were round at the time like Graham Catley and Ian Shepherd (who I suspect might have designed the logo) could shed any more light?

Its a great logo in any event. Anyone got any theories why herons are declining in Lincs?

I have ringed at a Heronry near Market Rasen for over 20 years ago where they nested in comparatively low hawthorn scrub under an ash canopy. Three years ago we noticed all 12 nests had been predated or deserted which coincided with a pair of buzzards taking up territory in the wood. Two unsuccessful nests in 2014 and none at all last year. Could the increase of Buzzards have any bearing?

it is an interesting fact stuart when you consider the spread of little egret during the same period when they are likely to nest in the same areas, but herons are more likely to be inland than the egret but buzzards are present around on the coast also. hmm needs some thought, take care stuart
terry whalin

Maybe not the most interesting story, but since the question's been asked, I believe the grey heron was indeed chosen as the 'LBC bird', by Anne Goodall and original committee around the time of the club's formation (in autumn 1979, not '77) , for pretty much the reasons mentioned by Andy, plus the strong graphic shapes/patterns provided by the species. The other obvious candidate local species based on that reasoning, at the time, was lapwing but that species already had other local graphic associations! The species featured on headers of Lincs Bird News, produced by Anne Goodall, from vol.1 no.3 (March 1980) onward. The first five annual reports published by LBC - '79 to '83, featured GPC's heron drawing on the covers, then there was a 1980 club tee-shirt with my heron artwork on it, an early car sticker adapted from same and the '84 to '89 annual reports featured my heron design, but through this period, whist grey heron was established as 'LBC bird', there was no real graphic identity/logo for the club. Martin Davies asked me to design same when he took over as chairman and it's pretty much the same as the one used now - may have been some minor amendments when I redesigned the style/header for Lincs Bird News a few years later.

Thanks Ian....

When I started out as chairman I considered changing the logo, BUT got overwhelming response to keep the present one (which with hindsight I believe to be the correct decision)...



The interesting fact about grey herons is that although the number of nest has significantly dropped (c400 in 1990 to 190 in 2014), the number of colonies monitored has doubled (c14 in 1990 and now 24 in 2014).

Maybe this is the grey herons response to the return of common buzzard?

Could there be more grey heron colonies (small sized and overlooked....) located around Lincolnshire, which are not counted? The list of all grey heron colonies is shown below (includes the number of nests recorded in 2014). Do you know of anymore? Are we missing any?

Abbey Wood 36
Appletree Ness 2
Baston Sand & Gravel Pits 8
Belton Park 4
Bottom Barff Wood 0
Dowsby Fen 2
Fitties Nature Reserve 1
Hartsholme Country Park 13
Hospital Cottage Spinney 5
Howsham Barff Wood 1
Kingerby Wood 0
Kirkby Pits (west) 9
Legbourne Wood 0
Lea Marsh 6
Long Wood 7
Nocton Wood 8
North Cotes Spinney 13
Patterson’s Pit 23
The Deeps 3
The Mere, Deeping St James 6
Troy Wood 9
Tuetoes Wood 0
Warren Plantation 4
Welland Farm 6
Willoughby Wood 24

BTW The Lincolnshire Bird Club is grateful to Mr Barrie Wilkinson for organising the BTO Heronries Census within Lincolnshire and supplying the data for use in the above table.....

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Andrew Chick
Website: http://www.forktail.co.uk/

Andrew,
I found your 2015 list of Heronries very interesting and it is obvious that they are not always site faithful. Since 1980 the Mid Lincs Ringing Group (which also has Grey Heron as their logo!) ringed nearly 700 herons at six different heronries. They are Tuetoes, Howsham Barff, Kingerby, North Cotes Spinney, Hartsholme and a small unnamed wood between Hardy Gang wood and Barlings. Of these, only Howsham Barff (1), North Cotes and Hartsholme held nests last year. I don't know how long Herons have nested at Hartsholme but North Cotes is a comparatively recent addition. Why there are no longer Herons at Tutoes, Kingerby and Barlings is open to conjecture - the fact that there are a good number of new small heronries could be a "defence mechanism" against predation as you suggest.

Old Hag Wood near Doddington used to have some Herons. Perhaps someone local can confirm if they still have them there.

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http://birdmanbirds.blogspot.com/