Our New Lincolnshire Listmaster
Following John Clarkson’s tragic death in August, a vacancy has arisen for the above role which I’m pleased John’s longstanding birding buddy Andy Sims has volunteered to fill. Andy is well known throughout the county as a dedicated patch worker at Boultham Mere but he also probably has the biggest British List of any Lincs birder and the third biggest known Lincolnshire list. His excellent knowledge of the birds and birders of the county make him admirably qualified to take over from John.
Andy (left) and John (right) birding in the Lincs Wolds or was it the Sela Pass, Arunachal Pradesh India? March 2019
What does the Lincolnshire Listmaster do? Well to some keeping a list of the birds one has personally seen in Lincolnshire is pointless, for others it’s a bit of fun and for a smaller band its deadly serious. The role of Listmaster is to keep a spreadsheet recording all the birds seen in the county by any birder who wishes to take part. It provides a benchmark so that people can see who has seen what, and how they are doing against each other and the leader of the pack, currently Graham Catley. Not everybody takes part and there are a handful of people who might easily be in the top 10 should they decide to take part and submit their list. There is no detailed scrutiny but when it comes to rarities only birds accepted by BBRC are countable.
John used to send out and update the list annually but it is usually out of date as birders keep adding seeing new species as often as they can! The latest version has the following rankings:
- Graham Catley 368
- Kev Wilson 363
- Andy Sims 362
- John Clarkson (died 2023) 360
- Phil Espin 355
- Nige Lound 353
- Neil Drinkall 351
- Phil Hyde 346
- Barry Clarkson 344
- Keith Atkin (died 2017) 343
If you’d like to take part, please email Andy Sims on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and he will send you the spreadsheet to either update your current list or insert a column for you if you haven’t previously taken part. All entries are welcome from 200 species seen and over. Andy will compile all the data and we’ll hopefully publish a full up to date list in the January Heron.
