The Lincolnshire Bird Club

There was a report of a Pacific Swift flying south over Spurn at 13.42. I nipped down to Sea View and got there at 14.30 spent an hour watching Swifts go over, 110 in all, but none with any white on any part of their plumage.

Subsequently after I'd given up and gone to Manby Flashes (19 Black tailed Godwit and 3 Green Sandpipers) I heard via text from Birdguides that what was presumably the same bird was reported briefly over Gib Point at 14.30. Anybody have any details about this bird which will be the first for Lincs if accepted?

Wasted effort Phil - it was over Gib at 14:20. But none of us were aware of it's progress south from Spurn until 14:30 - although Richard apparently knew about it considerably earlier - pass the info on please next time Richard!!!!!. A certain Les Fisher reported a white-rumped Swift flying south over the east dunes and reported it at the Field Station but declined to give away any information personal or otherwise!? So that may be all there is.

Not a wasted effort for a first for Lincs, I'd be happy to do it again, only next time with a bit more success hopefully.

This was a bird from Spurn that almost certainly came over Lincs rather tahn heading straight for Norfolk. By my reckoning it must have done about 35 miles in 37 minutes, if the reported Birdguides time over Spurn was correct, which it probably wasn't.

Another one that got away then.

A chap came over to me today whilst I was sat on the beach, asking me if i'd seen the Pacific Swift (14:28), i replied "no, i didn't know there had been one reported" he responded by saying "One flew over about 20 minutes ago" (14:08). So i didn't put the news out about the bird as i'd assumed it had already gone over!!!!! if that was the bird or not I didn't know.
After a couple minutes I got a call (about 14:30) saying that a Pacific Swift had been reported flying past spurn and to keep an eye out for it, I said that someone had just reported one about half an hour ago.
Was this the bird or not??????

All sounds a bit iffy to say the least; it is not always easy to rule out Common Swifts with white rumps on brief fly bys, and I have seen 2 in Lincs, so I doubt a brief view would produce enough details for an acceptable record of such a mega rare species; but the have been occasions when poor records have been accepted on the back of a good claim further up the coast.

OK so we are all pretty miserable that we missed the bird, but thanks to the observer who reported it into the Visitor Centre.

The message I got form the Visitor Centre was Pacific swift south over East Dunes at 1420 - sounded like a confident identification - lets hope a good description is forthcoming - backed up with the Spurn sighting this could be a good first for Lincs!

Kev

but that was my point Kev --- is it acceptable to say well there was one at Spurn (seen well) so this was the same bird? In my opinion all records should stand on their own credentials and not be related to other sightings however obvious it may sound -- surely any record should be strong enough to stand scrutiny on its own accord? I am not saying that this is the case here but people do claim birds on the basis of one flew past so and so and I saw it later -- and there was one at ?? last week so mine will be the same bird -nearly every person who takes up bird spotting now has a pager or mobile Birdguides etc so everyone knows what to look out for but note that only 7 of all the Spurn regulars managed to see it and they all have walky talkies and get instant messaging-- and was it 14:08 or 14:20 ? some confusion there as well but maybe of little relevance? Out of interest where do Swifts go when they leave Gib? south across the Wash or down the Wash side or where? as there are always about 12 million birders on the North Norfolk coast looking out for arrivals I guess we can assume that all the lost birds must go into the void of the Wash ? and south through the Cambs rivers like the skuas do -- many of the birds that leave Spurn clearly go straight across to Norfolk and don't actually follow the coast particularly those that leave at the narrows -- it would be of interest to try and work out just how many rare birds seen going south off Spurn have ever been turned up in Lincs?


From Spurn web site -- I guess this was Gary!
Saturday 9th

late afternoon update

Good numbers of Swifts and Sand Martins were moving again and at 13.42 a PACIFIC SWIFT flew south past the sea-watching hut and seen by sever lucky observers! Slight bitterness by the writer as he was at the Point and the bird had obviously cut out from the Narrows towards Lincolnshire where it was seen at 14.30 at Gibraltar Point. At least 3000 Swifts, … Sand Martins, 5 Hobby and a Wood Sandpiper were also seen moving through today.


At Barton pits few Swifts were present but 2 first-summer Hobbies were hawking and I did have a Swift one the same afternoon, hoping it may have turned up the Humber, -- it was a juvenile laying in the grass clenching several stems tightly -- I picked it up and it seemed Ok so after it had screamed at me and shat all over me I threw it upwards to see it plummet to within 6 inches of the ground before regaining its momentum and flying off south through the bushes --

I agree that all records should meet the required standard on their own merits. But I'm sure a record can still get rejected even if a good description is produced, by a single observer who does not have a track record with a rarities panel, where an extreme rarity is involved.

Migration down the coastal strip is a real focus for me and I have been keeping notes on timings of known birds leaving Spurn eg cranes, ospreys, red-rumped swallows etc where they can be linked to sightings at Gib, although coverage here is scant in comparison to Spurn of course. It is also interesting to look at the flight speeds given for raptors, storks etc in the recent BB article on Bulgarian passage.

Whilst some large soaring birds have definitely made a North Sea crossing from Spurn eg black stork, I am not sure that Hirundines and swifts do this in big numbers. It is true that counting migrants at Gib is more tricky than at Spurn becasue they are less 'funnelled' here and may move on a broad front and this includes over the sea particularly for many swifts and hirundines. I have wondered whether some of these cross the Wash and come in again at Hunstanton where a big throughput of migrants has been recorded by two Norfolk birders for some years now??

I'll look forward to answering a few of these questions in retirement maybe !! - in the meantime, we would be grateful to anyone who is able to spend time counting migrants at Gib to build a more complete picture.

Cheers

Kev