The Lincolnshire Bird Club

I wonder what experiences other forum members have when non-birding friends tell them about the astonishing birds they've spotted. Today in Louth town centre I was asked by a friend what bird of prey he'd seen sitting on a wall near Louth St James's church. I suggested a Kestrel or Sparrowhawk. He indicated that it was brown and about the size of a Pygmy Falconet! Any ideas? Next I bumped into a couple of friends who had visited someone near Donna Nook. They had seen a bird unknown to them and looked in a bird spotters guide where they positively identified it as a Short-toed Lark. I suggested it was highly unlikely but...you never know!

John

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Lincolnshire Birds https://www.flickr.com/photos/120340949 ... 8078912016
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Contact: recorder_north@lincsbirdclub.co.uk

A friend of mine lives on the outskirts of Mablethorpe in a bungalow with garden backing onto the 3 acres common, last august he rang me in the evening to report the close views he had of a stone curlew wandering around his lawn, he gave a very good description of the bird.
About 10 years ago another person living in the same area came to me with a photo of his bird table and a male black headed bunting with house sparrows, needless to say when i went the next morning it didn,t appear.
John.

I got chatting to a lady in a bird hide about a year ago. She was really struggling to ID even things like Chaffinches and was looking in her guide. She went on to tell me that she wasn't really a bird watcher but that she had once seen a Bluethroat in her local park. How accurate this was I will never know!
Jenny

In the mid 1980's a farmer from Tealby in the middle of the wolds contacted me about "a funny duck with an orange bill" with a ring he'd found in his lambing pen in mid February. I went to see him and he'd put it in a sack. I should have known better but I put my hand in without looking and promptly withdrew it with a deep cut. The "duck" was a Shag which had been ringed as a nestling on the Isle of May two years earlier! A few weeks later, a friend in Market Rasen rang my wife saying he had a little hawk in his chicken run. I went round expecting a male Sparrowhawk. I had not taken into account the propensity of native Yellow bellies to drop their h's and was staggered to find a very healthy Little Auk! Both had appeared after gale force easterly winds and both flew off stronglywhen released on the coast!

where do I start?

the lady from New Holland who rang to say she had a Pied Flycatcher in her bath--well it was black and white and had landed in her 8ft x 4ft front garden---needless to say it was another Little Auk

the lady from Scartho who had a pair of Ortolan Buntings nesting in her front garden--one was pink and the other brown with white in the wings--

a couple of weeks back one of the local Rottweiller walkers stopped me to ask what he had seen and went on to describe an adult White-tailed Eagle but then he mentioned th eprevious week that there were two together and they were taking dead fish from the sailing pit---when I pointed out that there were two adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls doing just that the dog looked less than happy so I accepted his ID

when I was recorder a retired army Capatin rang from soemwhere in the fens to inform me that he had seen between 7 and 14 Great Bustards on the field near his house----what I could not work out was how he could not tell if there were 7,8,9 etc to 14 of this Turkey sized bird when he was looking at them

and then there was the guy who rang to say he had seen a Roller near Woodall Spa in October--now what would be the chances of that?

What about the Blue Cheeked Bee-Eater Graham, that was a bugger, glad i saw it in Yorkshire

One of the best I ever heard was when a lady phoned Bryan Bland at his home in Cley to say that she had an unusual bird at her garden bird feeders. She described it as bigger than the other bids with a red mark on its crown. Bryan confidently identified it as a GS Woody. The caller checked in her book and called back to say that it was nothing like a GSW so, eventually, Bryan turned up to have a look for himself. It was an escaped Sarus Crane. The caller had omitted to mention that it had been standing on the ground when at her bird feeders but in other respects her description was spot on!

John

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Lincolnshire Birds https://www.flickr.com/photos/120340949 ... 8078912016
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Contact: recorder_north@lincsbirdclub.co.uk

About a month ago a dog walker came to the N N R office and stated
I know you won,t believe this but i lived in Scotland for 6 years and i have just seen a golden eagle flying over the dunes,
of course he was correct i didn,t believe him!. John.