Submissions of Records
All observers are encouraged to submit records on a regular, at least monthly, basis as this helps considerably with managing the workload and speeding up production of the annual report. If it isn’t possible to submit records until the end of the year, the deadline is by the end of February of the following year. Late records cause serious problems in drafting the systematic list and may be omitted. The names of all contributors will be published unless individuals ask us to omit their names. There are several ways of submitting records to LBC, and below we list some of the best. Please remember that, as a small, volunteer-run organisation, we are unable to monitor and extract records from the many personal blogs and similar online sources that now exist. Your records are valuable, so please make sure that they are sent somewhere secure and accessible.
By far the best way to submit your records is via either BirdTrack or eBird.
BirdTrack and eBird: Many birders are now using BirdTrack (www.bto.org/birdtrack) or eBird (ebird.org/home) to maintain their personal records online and these make up the bulk of records we receive (64% and 27%, respectively). All such records (barring confidential ones) for Lincolnshire are passed to us by BTO and eBird and are published in this report, subject to our usual checking procedures. LBC supports these sites and a single submission to either will suffice; there is no need for you to send duplicate records direct to LBC. Please ensure your BirdTrack and eBird sites have a clear geographic place name in them and an accurate OS grid reference or we cannot use the data. Site names like “Home”, “Patch” or “A52” are unusable.
National Rarities: Nationally rare birds are indicated as such by the identifier BBRC (British Birds Rarities Committee) after the species name in the systematic list in this report. Consideration of records of these is by the BBRC and submission of details should be made direct to BBRC at www.bbrc.org.uk and a copy sent to the county recorder at recorder_south@lincsbirdclub.co.uk. Records of all such rarities will only be published in our report once assessed and accepted by BBRC. The submission of descriptions of national rarities is important. Bird news providers do not assess records passed to them and without full submission to BBRC such records cannot be published and will be lost.
County Rarities: Species or races considered rare at county level are dealt with by the Lincolnshire Bird Record Committee and are indicated as such by the identifier LBRC after the species name in the systematic list in this report. The committee currently comprises Owen Beaumont, Anthony Bentley, Richard Doan, Matthew Harrison, Nigel Lound, and Andy Sims. The chairman of the LBRC is Nige Lound and Roy Harvey is secretary (roy.harvey100@btinternet.com.).
Details and descriptions of LBRC species can be submitted by emailing them to the LBRC secretary or using the online form (visit www.lincsbirdclub.co.uk/site/index.php/sightings and click on the green ‘Submit a record’ button). In most cases a decent photo will be sufficient for submission. All records of LBRC species should be submitted as soon as possible after the sighting and not left until the end of each year. County rarities accepted by the LBRC will be published in the report, together with the initials of the finder/identifier. The submission of description of county rarities is important. The verification of the data that appears in the annual report is essential to the production of an accurate and meaningful report. A systematic approach to the verification of ALL rare bird records, no matter who has reported them, prior to the production of the annual report is required before they are published.
From time to time the LBRC will reserve the right to seek additional details of other records deemed exceptional by virtue of, for example, date, location, or number. For further information on the treatment of county rarities, please contact the county recorder.
In the past the following methods have been used, and records are still gathered from:
X formerly known as Twitter: For short messages, to get the news out to others, you can tweet @lincsbirding.
BlueSky; Follow “Lincolnshire Birding” and for short messages, to get the news out to others, use the hashtag #Lincsbirding.
LBC Forum: For LBC members, you can post sightings of what you have seen, where and when you saw them, on our forum (with an image if you have one). Go to the LBC website www.lincsbirdclub.co.uk log in and follow the links to the forum.
LBC Template: Twitter and Forum records have to be transferred to the LBC database, which takes a lot of time. Submitting records using the LBC Excel spreadsheet template saves a lot of that work. You can either fill records into the spreadsheet yourself or export data into the spreadsheet from your recording software package and email it to info@lincsbirdclub.co.uk. Please contact the county recorder philhyde55@gmail.com for an up to date records template spreadsheet.
LBC rare bird WhatsApp group: This is used as a primary source for tracking LBRC species and is open to all members to join.