The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Riseholme college
6th June '11
1 pair Spotted flycatcher at Riseholme. Nest in same location as last year.

Ian Birch

Great views of Spotted Flycatcher at Riseholme this morning ( Sat ).
Thanks for the info, Ian.
......but nothing to report from a traditional site at nearby Stow or from the Willingham-by- Stow Churchyard area.

Freddy

1 seen in Tothill wood this morning when doing TTV with Cliff Morrison. (170611) John

At least 1 still in the plantation at MSQ today,showing well.


Regards


Steve.

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I followed up Steve's MSQ report today (Sun), 12.30-2.15 pm..... In a break in the light rain showers, I was alerted by a Notts birder, Phil Lee, to a bird-wave in an area along the track we were on between the two wooden (sleeper-plank) bridges in the Plantation :

Coal Tits
Blue Tits
Great Tits
Tree Creeper..........and Spotted Flycatcher.

The Sp Fly perched between sorties and gave excellent views. Thanks Steve (and Phil)

Freddy
PS.....another Spotted Flycatcher/Spotted Sandpiper coincidence...Phil Lee was one of the birders who, having gone around to a side of Thorpe Lake last Friday evening, helped to alert our small Visitor Centre group to the Spot Sand on the headland to the right of the Sand Martin colony.

20th June
Spotted flycatcher pair at Riseholme college now feeding chicks so fingers crossed the squirrels don't get them.
Also today a Hobby having fun hunting the swallows near Riseholme church.

Ian Birch

Two pairs in Scawby park this evening.

Colin.

Pair still on show at Willingham by Stow church yesterday evening (20th June).
Cheers
Brian

Success on my 4th visit this Spring/Summer to Willingham-by-Stow Churchyard this evening (Tue)...5.40-6.05 pm. Sp Fly flycatching from the gravestones on the left just inside the gate. It reappeared every 3-4 minutes and then flew with its beakful of insects over a nearby low wall into the heavily shaded neighbouring garden, where it is presumably nesting. It could have been a pair working the churchyard but I did not see 2 birds together.

Thanks for the timely reminder to revisit, Brian.

Freddy
PS.....I went on to Scawby Park after the Willingham-by Stow visit but I didn't connect with Sp Fly there ( 6.45-7.45 )....it's a large park, though.

Also breeding in Woodhall Spa, where I have seen them in past years.

Rob

Continuing the religious theme, one in Edlington churchyard.

Early afternoon today (Fri), in the sunny weather, I went to :

a. Woodhall Spa, off The Broadway.
Sp Fly flycatching in the front garden of a private house, easily viewable from the road. Very active, reappearing every 2 or 3 minutes. It caught a sp White butterfly which it then took to its nest, apparently in a creeper at the front of the house.
Thanks, Robert, for the info.

b. Edlington Churchyard, near Horncastle.
It soon became apparent that there was no Sp Fly working the Churchyard.......but in the neighbouring large and open garden....Edlington Hall / '3 Star, Self-Catering'.....I immediately saw one flycatching over the spacious lawn. On 3 or 4 occasions it fed a quivering-winged chubby youngster sat up on a branch, although the young bird did take a few short flights around one side of the garden.
Thanks, Phil, for the tip-off....the bird, being of a self-catering nature, must commute between the Churchyard and the neighbouring garden.

Freddy

Hi Freddie

You may be interested in a preview of the BTO atlas results in the 19 10k squares of East Lincolnshire so far.

Spotted Flycatcher has been confirmed breeding in 7 (including both TF27 and TF 26 where Edlington and Woodhall Spa are located) , probable breeding in 2, possible breeding in 2 and recorded but with no breeding evidence found so far in 5 more.

They seem to be most frequent in and around the wolds and absent from the coastal strip with very few in the fens. Any reports of Spot Flys breeding in these areas would be most welcome.

Thanks for your interesting post, Phil, with the BTO Atlas Spotted Flycatcher preview. The figures confirm how few and far between breeding records of Sp Flys in East Lincolnshire have been so far this year...and we are now coming up to July. Only confirmed breeding reports in 7 of the squares in the whole East Lincolnshire region covering 19 x 10km squares stretching from Louth to the coast in the N to Boston in the S, and the W boundary running N/S from Swineshead through Woodhall Spa to Ludford.

I suppose, therefore, that breeding records of Sp Flys from any of the remaining squares of East Lincolnshire would be most welcome, though one appreciates the special need for those from the coastal strip and the fens.

It all confirms the Spotted Flycatcher's 'Red Status'.

Freddy

Another confirmed breeding record ( and apparently two ) of Spotted Flycatcher in Lincs for the LBC Bird Reports but outside the recently mentioned BTO Atlas East Lincolnshire region....

I recently received info from Lincs birder, Dean Nicholson, re Spotted Flycatchers nesting in a front garden (easily viewable from the road) of a property in Brampton, just S of Gainsborough off the A156, and I decided to visit the site yesterday, Sat 25 June.

I parked opposite the property and a Spotted Flycatcher soon appeared with a beakful of insects and flew to the nest in a trellis on the front wall of the house....and this was repeated several times. Thanks to Dean for the sighting.

I was just about to drive off when 'the lady of the house' opposite the property with the Sp Fly nest appeared. Discovering that although I was a birder, I seemed quite normal and a " decent sort of guy " (only joking ), she invited me into her house and garden - a very spacious property with numerous outbuildings - a couple of barns (with nesting Barn Owl), stables etc. in the 'grounds' (plus nesting Green and Great-spotted Woodpeckers). Anyway, she wanted to show me her own Spotted Flycatcher nestbox (in use for some years now) just inside a rear patio.....the birds fledged and flew some days ago and a pair of Swallows ( one of which I saw entering the nestbox) have now taken it over, with plenty of mud evident. There was a Spotted Flycatcher flycatching in her garden but it could have been from across the road.

So, a week or two ago, there would have been Sp Flys nesting on both sides of the road....only 25-30 yards apart......Remarkable ! I wonder if one male was looking after two females ? I'm not sure what the 'literature' says about Sp Fly polygamy, and I don't know if there are records of male Sp Flys doing polygyny....

I later went on to Haxey, Lincs ( N of Gainsborough off the A161 ) to visit the Churchyard there - a traditional Sp Fly nesting site, according to a Notts birder I met recently - but NOT this year, as far as I was able to ascertain.

Freddy