Common Whitethroat Curruca communis
Whitethroat is the warbler of the Lincolnshire countryside, both widespread and plentiful. Its song flight capturing the joy of spring from mid-April onwards like no other. It has had its ups and downs, particularly during the infamous Whitethroat crash of the winter of 1968-69 caused by severe drought over several years in its Sahel wintering grounds which brought it to an all-time low by 1974. Its population has still not fully recovered from that event, but the BBS Lincs index shows the breeding population has significantly increased by 60% during the period 1994-2018. The Atlas put the population at 25,000 pairs in the 1980s and the adjusted APEP4 methodology indicates it had grown to 53,000 pairs by 2016 making it Lincolnshire's most abundant warbler. Its estimated British population of 1.1 million ranks it fourth commonest British warbler. In the last five years to 2018 LBR reports some particularly large counts at Gibraltar Point with breeding season peak numbers of 143 on June 15th, 2015 and 110 on May 10th, 2017. In autumn migration peak counts of 135 were recorded on August 23rd, 2016 and 112 on August 20th, 2018.
(Updated with reference to the new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021) December 2022)