The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Checking on LBC reports (and additional bird websites), and speaking to other LBC members, it appears that this year Spotted Flycatchers are even thinner on the ground/in the trees than last year.
Stimulated by David Morison's 3 photos of Fulbeck Spotted Flycatchers yesterday, I decided to take the bull by the horns, so to speak.
Today (Mon) I toured around the Lincoln area checking on 5 'traditional' sites where Sp.Flys have nested or been suspected of nesting in the last 5 years or so :

Riseholme College Churchyard area - NTR (nothing to report)
( Lindsey Hall Gdns- gardener gave me duff gen. - the nesting Sp. Flys turned
out to be nesting Chaffinches)

Stow - St. Mary's Church area -SUCCESS! Nesting pair on the same creepered wall as 2009, presumably with young (from the rapid frequency with which flies were being brought in).
I didn't approach the nest for obvious reasons.

Willingham-by-Stow Churchyard - NTR

Aubourn Hall area - NTR (and where a barrier just off the main road now prevents one driving to the Church area).

Waddington Churchyard - NTR

I saw no Sp.Flys in the NTR areas above; the birds could be there but, after a reasonable amount of checking time, I didn't see them.
That leaves me with one further location to check out later in the week - in the Doddington Hall area where Richard Gunn and I found nesting birds in 2009.

Have other LBC members had better luck with Spotted Flycatchers this year?

Regards,

Freddy

Hi Freddy,

About four years ago I knew of five pairs of Spotted Flycatchers that nested in our village.
Last year, as far as I know, there were no nests in the village and there are none, thus far this year. I have also not encountered the species anywhere in England this year.

Regards,
Roy

Pair feeding young today near Market Rasen

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http://birdmanbirds.blogspot.com/

I thought that they had recovered a bit. A pair in my garden (Rippingale) and another 200 metres up the road in Rippingale. I have not checked the churchyard/ Manor which normally has a pair. At least one pair nesting in the next village; Dunsby.

Of greater concern are Turtle Doves. Most of the favoured sites have no birds at all. This year so far only singles in Rippingale Fen, Dunsby Fen and Twenty. Are they going to go the same way as Tree Pipits did in south Lincolnshire?; now absent (as far as I know) from all former breeding sites.

Ian

Heard a turtle dove near Walesby Church last Tues. evening. First for 3 years.

Geoff

1 Spotted Flycatcher at Blankney Golf Course today, also 1 Oystercatcher
Dave Purnell

I've had one pair carrying food to a nest in Westgate Fields in Louth and saw a pair in Hoplands Wood in late May. You are right Freddy they are getting thin on the ground and if they are about they are usually pretty noticeable. They've bred in my garden once in 13 years and used to flycatch from the tip of my car aerial.

Its an important species to record for the Atlas especially as they are declining so much. If you visit the Atlas website at http://blx1.bto.org/atlas/ and select "Add roving records" you can make your observation count by ensuring Spot Fly status is fully recorded across the country. If you need any assistance with making an entry please feel free to call me on 07966 325380.

Phil,
Further to your post above, I have now registered with the BTO (smooth, uncomplicated procedure) and submitted the records for both the Spotted Flycatcher (21/06/2010) and the Red Kite (22/06/2010) under "Add roving records" as below :

10 Km Tetrad
SK 88 V Stow 21/06 2010 Spotted Flycatcher NY - nesting with young

SK 96 Y Lincoln 22/06/2010 Red Kite ( 1 ) F - overflying

I was informed :
" Your observations have now been entered successfully into the Atlas database."

Many thanks for your guidance to the BTO registration website.

Regards,

Freddy

Well done, Freddy. I have been submitting Roving Records for Breeding species in our ringing site squares for a couple of seasons. As you said, it is extremely simple and I fully agree with Phil and urge everyone who submits sightings on here to also send them to the BTO Atlas as Roving Records for the relevant square if they prove breeding has occurred. I know many are doing stirling work with Timed Tetrad Visits.

My records are also safely entered on the BTO atlas. I have always entered my local records as roving records because my friend Hugh Dorrington pinched all the best squares!!

The only drawback is you can't enter multiples of pairs in the same square - well only as a number count which looks odd if you have also entered a breeding category.

Ian

I'm glad you found it a straightforward procedure Freddy. There is a lot of interesting information on there too like developing maps for selected species and lists of whats been recorded in each square.

To answer your question Ian the Atlas comes in 2 parts. Timed tetrad visits help to build the list of species recorded in each square and what species are confirmed as breeding but more importantly will be used to estimate populations of each species.

Roving records are crucial in helping build the list of species recorded in each square and what is confirmed as breeding in each square. Thats why you don't have to enter a number for roving records at all. The problem is when you are doing a ttv you don't have the luxury of sitting and watching a bird until it demonstrates some evidence of breeding. I like Freddy's approach of going out and looking for Spotted Flycatchers at all the sites he's seen them in the past. The other point that makes roving records important is that different species fledge their young at different times and the chances of catching them all on one visit are zero.

By the way it doesn't matter if someone has "bagged" a square for a ttv. You can still enter roving records for that square which will be complementary to whatever is recorded in the ttv.

Spotted flycatcher are breeding at Riseholme college but not in churchyard area

Ian Birch

Thanks, Ian, for your info - I was looking in the wrong place and the Riseholme Campus covers an enormous area.

I had better luck today (Fri) at my 2009 nesting site in the Doddington Hall/Doddington Farmshop area and located a very active Sp.Fly in the same area with a beakful of insects.

I then went on to the Market Rasen area acting on info supplied. I met up by chance with Stuart Britton and together we checked out two sites where Sp.Flys have been seen recently but with no luck today.

However, Stuart took the trouble to show me the general nesting area of a pair of Tree Pipits, which showed on trees nearby. Brilliant. It more than compensated for the recent Greetwell Hollow disappointment. Thanks again Stuart .......much appreciated!

Regards,

Freddy

Freddy.

Spotted Flycatchers are nesting in Willingham by Stow. They're in a large garden about 200yds from the church. They've nested there for about 10 years apparently.

Ian,
Thanks for the info and it's great news that Spotted Flycatchers are nesting at least somewhere this year in Willingham by Stow......and at a 'traditional' site, too.