Black Redstart in Grimsby

Thank you for sharing this Nick. The replies to this thread are already building a picture of the presence of Black Redstart in North / North East Lincolnshire. Nice photos too I may add. 

This was in my garden and neighbourhood during April. Havelock school field/Carr lane/Grimsby. He stayed for around a week, and it was great watching him feed over the rubble left from a long removed shed and its base. I keep looking for his return and see no reason why he shouldn't as the terrain around the school field edge, with its abandoned tennis and netball courts, allotment detritus etc is prime redstart feeding ground.

There is definitely potential. I do have contacts at the company - I will put some thought to this in the near future. 

I'll also put some thought in to areas along Pyewipe and the wider North Wall area as potential survey-able sites as well. It would indeed be great if we could confirm their breeding in the county. 

Thanks Josh - yes, it was Phillips 66 that I wrote to.

 Security and safety were cited as reasons which is reasonable enough. However, when I wrote back, saying that I would have to content myself with peering through the fencing, I was warned that this would also be discouraged if not forbidden. 

I suppose the view was that someone scanning the site through nockies was a potential terrorist.

I don’t often pass that way, but I have always thought it might have potential - not least because I once watched (through the fence ) no fewer than three green sandpipers feeding at a rain-flooded area on site. 

Anyway, I am fully supportive of any Mission Breeding Black Redstart. 

It would be great if any of Lincolnshire’s  lost chat species could make a nesting comeback.

You raise some really good points here Jim. They are more common as migratory records. 

The homeowner mentioned how a Robin had been seeing this Black Redstart off. Given their territorial nature; I can see this as being an issue where territories may overlap. 

I know there have been scattered sightings in recent years around Grimsby Docks, as well as the oil terminal you mentioned. It was my understanding that this was under the ownership of Philips 66 (ex. Conoco). I have a good working relationship with this company via my work; if we have reasonable cause to believe a scarce breeding bird is using this site - I could approach my contacts there. Obviously security is a significant issue so they would have the right to refuse this. 

It would be good if something of a concerted effort could take place in the spring. There are suitable areas between along Pyewipe towards Immingham as well. 

Food for thought. Obviously a single bird turning up in a garden in Grimsby doesn't necessarily imply local breeding - but we certainly can't rule that out. 

Definitely one of my favourite birds ever since seeing them annually on an allotments site when I lived in South London, so thanks for posting those pix, Josh.  

I'm always on the look-out for black redstarts in N.E.Lincs, but have never seen one locally yet, though I know there are regular migration records (especially from Humberston Fitties).

With global warming, it has sometimes been suggested that this is a species that ought to be extending its range in the UK, but it doesn't seem to have happened yet.

I once quizzed broadcaster David Lindo (the Urban Birder) about this, and his theory was that the feistiness of robins was keeping at bay similar-sized birds with flashes of red in their plumage. However, on reflection, I am inclined to disagree because BRs often favour as nesting habitat the sort of places (eg industrial sites) where robins are not much to be found.

I suppose there is a fair chance that there might be an odd breeding pair or two at factories on the Humber Bank or on ABP's docks estate, but who knows?

I have occasionally looked for them at Anglian Water's sewage works at Newton Marsh, near Tetney Lock but without success.

I once wrote asking for  permission to scan the Lindsey oil storage site, also  near Tetney Lock, but received a very curt refusal note, asking if I hadn't realised  that the nearby RSPB  marshland reserve was the place designated for "those people who want to go bird-spotting".