Birds in Lincolnshire

Potential Birds New to Lincolnshire

Part 1 - Long Overdue Species. By Mike Tarrant

Surf Scoter is no longer a national rarity and yet one has not been picked out in the many flocks of Common Scoter seen off the Lincolnshire coast. The east coast of Scotland seems to be the species' stronghold and an adult male recently reached Yorkshire. The lack of height above the sea would seem to be to our disadvantage but, surely, an adult male with those white patches on the head would shine like a beacon in a mixed scoter flock.

A tern in winter would raise eyebrows and with a black mask through the eye would make a Forster's Tern not too difficult to identify, but a breeding-plumaged bird would provide more of a challenge. Thankfully, the sightings in Britain are of birds in non-breeding plumage.

In recent years, sightings of Pied-billed Grebe in Britain have become more regular and one at New Swillington Ings in Yorkshire shows how close we have come to having the species on the county list. Perhaps it will turn up in a sleepy, but well-watched, backwater like Boultham Mere.

The fourth species in this group is another American and yet another species that tends to be found in the winter period - the Killdeer. One in Leicestershire in the 1970s was close, but it is not necessarily a bird of wetlands. In its native North America, it is regular on garden lawns, and I nearly stepped on a nest once in a Florida car-park, and only the bird's broken-wing distraction display avoided an imminent catastrophe.

Return to Beginning of Article. Return to LBC Homepage. Part 2.

Photo 1 SURF SCOTER, Monterey, California, USA, 1988.© Mike Tarrant

Photo 2 FORSTER'S TERN, Florida, USA, 1985.© Mike Tarrant

Photo 3 PIED-BILLED GREBE, Florida, USA, 1985. © Mike Tarrant

Photo 4 KILLDEER, Florida, USA, 1985. © Mike Tarrant

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