The Lost Birds

And remember to take your phone..........

That is easy Alan. Twitter is used much more than Facebook for bird related matters. Obviously you have join. Once joined. Follow like minded people so you can follow their posts. Once in it asks you "what's happening".  You just type in your message but don't forget to press post. You can add photos etc by using the little icons under the writing space.

The main source of information is arguably BirdGuides so have a look at that too. Unfortunately there is a subscription with this if you want people to see a  specific location. EG if you had used this to record your Savi's it would just say Lincolnshire if you don't subscribe but if you do then it would have said Lincolnshire, Messingham SQ, have a map and even a grid reference. For news from around the country possibly the best as you can post on your phone out in the field (as long as you can get a signal that is

Yes it was a very good concise reply and I agree that Chris is doing an excellent job, one that I could never do. I do not take photos as I never carry a camera around, I have enough on with bins, scope and tripod. I always enter my sightings also on Bird Track but do not have a clue how to do the same on Twitter or Facebook. I do use Twitter but only to access rare Bird Alert for which I have a subscription. If anyone can tell me how to put sightings on it I will have a go.

Thanks Chris for that comprehensive reply!  Although its a pain in the arse when we lose our writing on here etc it's good to know that not only myself lose stuff but admin as well. 

I'm glad I was of service to you re the Savi's W. A very well known birder once told me if you want a bird to be recognised as being in a certain place take its photograph if poss , maybe AH didn't or couldn't get the chance.

The following isn't aimed at you Chris but many years ago I posted a sighting of 100 corn buntings at Thoresway in two or three groups with my pal, three years later a admin member who isn't one now questioned my sighting like I was a criminal and the sighting never reached the year book so the Savi has got no chance.

Keep up the excellent work mate despite me having a pop every now and then

JTG 

This for some reason will be my third attempt in answering (yesterday and today) some of the comments regarding the non reporting of the record of a Savi's Warbler at Messingham SQ

I was actually sat at my Computer compiling the database which comes from the sightings placed in the Forum section when Alan Hudson's report of a Savi's Warbler came in. This database's data is used in compiling each years Bird Report. I do this monthly

Immediately, on noticing the report of the Savi's and knowing that Alan only uses the Forum section and BirdTrack to record his sightings I decided to put out the news out to the Lincs Rare WhatsApp Rare Bird Group (see "information" for further details) which many members use. This meant that the news was seen by well over a hundred of our members almost immediately. I also placed the sighting in the Latest sightings Section of the website but unfortunately I didn't press Save which meant that the system discarded the sighting. I have done this numerous times since I started compiling this news section and it has cost me several hours. I was eventually alerted to this fact when I saw John Goy's post asking why the Savi's wasn't on the website. Obviously that and reports of Arctic Terns are now rectified

I have to say at this point that my brief is to collect sightings off Social Media which can be very time consuming and also a frustrating experience. It is not up to me to decide whether a sighting is correct or false. I just record what people have posted. I am not the Judge or the Jury. I believe we have a Records Committee which deal with such issues. No doubt they will require further information before this record makes it to the 2022 Bird Report

The Forum section seems to be used by fewer and fewer people. Only a dozen in July. Most people record their sightings through Twitter, Facebook or BirdTrack. All BirdTrack records go directly to the Recorder a few times a year and are invaluable in compiling the bird report. They are divided in to species in an Excel Spreadsheet and towards the end of the year are sent to writers of the Bird Report. some of the more common species could comprise of up to 5000 sightings each. I suspect the Savi's Warbler will consist of just one record unless it reappears. On the sheet it will look something like this 27/07/2022, Messingham SQ Savi's Warbler AHu

If the record is unclear, has no site recorded, no numbers recorded or no date recorded then there is a fair chance it will not be used. if there is three thousand dunlin on the beach then say so. if you leave it blank it will be recorded as just 1. An estimated count is perfectly acceptable. We didn't see the birds so we cannot know how many there were

Obviously good records are missed. Facebook and Twitter have rolling records and there is only so far you can go. In the Forum section I was initially sceptical about reposting reports  as you have already recorded the sighting and it is there for all to see permentally. I have mellowed a little bit there but will not use the sighting at all if if it is older than a few days. Sorry

Rest assured that if you post a record in the Forum it will be recorded and will be part of the data used annually for the bird report. You might not be able to distinguish your one little egret but it will be part of the data