The Lincolnshire Bird Club

firstly being the now deputy leader of rspb grimsby people phone me or pass on info at meetings of what they have seen in the area. i do get some oddities reported to parrots and a lady from scunny area who said she had a black grouse in her garden. after a bit of discussion, me explaining the extreme chances of that and her discription over the phone i said it was probably a melanistic pheasant without a tail and at that she was happy. on the other hand i sometimes get reports of things that i think are worthy of letting people know via this website the posibility of a species being present that people might want to search for ( a heads up if you like ) this last 2 weeks 3 people have told me of a great white egret being present monday leisure ctr rear with other poss sightings being bucks beck and fitties ponds, bearing in mind andy simms poss sighting at grainthorpe, the problem i have is not having seen them myself and being just a little bit miffed, i will explain. i submitted a report of a rosefinch for a third party that i thought was worthy of consideration by others then after that was forntunate enough 2 see my second honey buzzard in lincs in 4 years, and have had said to me whats he trying to claim now by someone who is a regular contributor. i am bothered by such comments and a little upset by them. firstly i have no personnel advantage to gain not having seen the rosefinch myself and would never knowingly mislead anyone but if the second honey buzzard was wrong then all 4 observers were all wrong and i cannot help it if the chap who passed the comments has never seen one in lincs. by not passing on info that could poss help other birders we all end up losing in the long run, terry whalin

Terry,

The Honey seen by one of my pals and myself [but I only got a glimpse] at Keb Wood last year was all but rubbished by certain members. My pal has fifty years experience of birding and has seen plenty of raptors etc. If I'd had a big bertha camera and got the evidence nothing would have been said but I'd no chance of even digiscoping it. In years gone by it bothered me that some of my sightings were alleged to be false, now with age I couldn't give two hoots what anyone says.

Kind regards

Max

PS: while at Grainthorpe Haven this week I got talking to one of the farmworkers and told him the story about you and and navvy mates repairing the track we both had a good laugh about it. He told me who and why the track was in better condition, so now I know.

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GETTING OLD HAS IT'S ADVANTAGES BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT THEY ARE lol

its not just honey buzzards john its the whole competative nature of listing and sometimes people go to extreme lengths to make sure noboby has a better list be it in a county, year, country, world and i am not just talking about lincs, it seems to be the whole so called elite that have this competative side to their nature even to not passing on info to each other and all birders suffer and they are usually the first to complain when info is not passed to them and they miss out. me i do not give a damm for personnel triumphs or lists, i just love the wonderful wonderful pleasure that nature and wildlife gives, and if i can assist or help anyone to share that pleasure no matter how trivial then i will give them time and patiance and a sympathetic ear. this has nothing to do with the rosefinch or honey buzzard its just a generalisation of the whole scene that unless you have a photograph or some so called higher authority has seen it then its not one. you have to remember the life blood of conservation is info as i am sure stuart and his ringers will agree, people should be encouraged not sneared at we only have one very small planet and we all must pull together to achieve our survival and all the wonderful things we share our planetary home with, terry whalin

Terry,
Having read your entry I am pleased that I'm not at all interested in "listing". However, EVERY bird I ring goes on a national database with varying degrees of biometric information which is accessible to professional ornithologists/conservation organisations/government departments etc. This is used in a variety of ways - from identifying species of conservation concern to large scale planning applications etc. etc. What a small number of highly competitive listers/birders think does not worry me in the slightest. I have been guilty in the past of making antagonistic comments on this Forum but now I am more concerned in the wider picture: ie each to their own interests as long as the health and welfare of birds is of prime importance.
In other words, Terry, don't let the b"*@"rds grind you down!!

What an excellent thread of common sense from Terence, John, and Stuart.

Terry"s a great guy,i agree wholehearttedly with his comments especialy-"love the wonderful pleasure that nature and wildlife gives",quote,ive said similiar elswhere on the thread about the twitchers prog on bbc4 just this morning,e.g,i f i havent seen it it does not a exist attitude that seems to exist these days,one birder said to me"you only think you saw a black kite"-he wasent there at the time!!!!another sniped another time"go overseas if u wanna see one"this sort of stuff never went on years ago,birders were more friendly then.im gettin like j t goy,-couldnt give two hoots now like i used to/Regards,
Rog.

been thinking about the situation for a few days. i was not criticising being ask to get a report for the rosefinch but never again will i do such a thing do to the petty jealousy it creates. one last late comment 9 waxwings reported to me being present at scatho in a members garden last thursday. that is the last time i will ever put a report on here again about species not personnaly seen by me. i have checked my honey buzzard records and away from known breeding sites i have seen the species approx 12 times in 30 years, twice in lincs, shropshire, derbyshire twice the rest being cornwall and norfolk. i will not submit a report about the sighting this year because i was not the finder only getting on the bird late because i was checking out a second group of buzzards north east of the honey buzzard. if anyone submits a record i would support the report but i would well understand reading the comments on this page great reluctance to do so. the sad thing is i have now joined the people who supress things though not for the same selfish reasons. having said that people who i see out birding who i think of as friends i will continue to tell them things verbally and treat the rest with the same contempt they deserve and meter out to so called lesser mortals, terry whalin

Just one thing, Terry, I can't see what is wrong with not releasing information on certain birds. It may not be a suitable place for hoards to descend on an area or the birds welfare could be compromised. I would never criticise anyone who "suppresses" information if the circumstances aren't right. As I said earlier, Terry, don't worry about what others think.

yes stuart i agree with what you say certain species on territory etc is common sense but migrational stuff that is not etc should be open for all to enjoy but that is not always the case, rare stuff on territory i will of cause do the correct thing and notify the correct people to use that info at there discretion, feeling somewhat happier about things to get it off my chest and would hate john clarkson who ask me to report the rosefinch to think that i am pointing a finger at him because that is not true i consider john as a friend and gentleman terry whalin

I agree that Terry and Stuart are talking good sense here, but what I think Terry really needs is a good twitch, that should set him to rights!

you are quite correct phil i should not have ranted on, i am not like that nomally, it might have been an off the cuff comment that just touched a nerve because i thought it implied faulsification of reports and i think that is an unforgivable crime and 99% of the people here i think are great, ps pied billed grebe at manchester sounds reachable tomorrow only ever seen a single in england anyway if i start ranting again somebody throw a bucket of water over me ta much