Birds in Lincolnshire

Possible Birds New to Lincolnshire - Part 2

2) Topicals. by Mike Tarrant

As there is a Snowy Egret in the country at the moment, perhaps it will call in Lincolnshire on its presumed way south. Now we are aware of its identification criteria, closely scrutinizing a Little Egret in the county might prove fruitful.

A spate of Brown Shrike records shows that this ultra-rarity might be more regular than we think. The photograph shows a spring bird, but a juvenile/first-winter in the county would test even the most accomplished among us. Are we up to the challenge? I suspect that those who read Dutch Birding may be better equipped as a recent issue was solely devoted to the Isabelline/Daurian/Turkestan/ Chinese/ Brown Shrike complexes.

With the recent Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler in Norfolk, comes hope that one can be found in Lincolnshire too. The finding of a Lanceolated Warbler on the saltmarsh at Saltfleetby proves that a "Blakeney Point" is not a prerequisite for finding very rare locustellas.

My final prediction in this group is a form rather than a full species and one that may well be overlooked - Hudsonian Whimbrel. The identification in flight would seem to be straightforward but in the photograph of a standing bird, doesn't it still look subtlely different from our familiar race?

Return to Beginning of Article. Return to LBC Homepage. Part 3.

Photo 5 SNOWY EGRET, Florida, USA, 1985. © Mike Tarrant

Photo 6 BROWN SHRIKE, Lake Baykal, Siberia, 1991. © Mike Tarrant

Photo 7 PALLAS'S GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, Soviet Far East, 1991. © Mike Tarrant

Photo 8 HUDSONIAN WHIMBREL, California, USA, 1988. © Mike Tarrant

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