?Whinchat Today in Gloucestershire (1 Viewer)

Capercaillie71 said:

Of course the winter atlas started on 1 November, so some of these could be late stragglers, rather than truly overwintering birds.

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Of course, that's a good point.

However, I've searched the local news achieve on RBA, which lists two Whinchat reports since 1st November 2007:

- A bird from 1-3rd Nov at Swallow Moss, Staffs
- An unconfirmed report of a bird at Minsmere, Suffolk on 30th Nov.

And that's it. Note the complete lack of overlap with those shown by the BTO to demonstrate the wintering population of Whinchat's in the UK.

From this one could assume that the birds logged with Birdtrack were not reported by local birders through other means as monitored by the various bird information services. I know when a bird tried to winter in Bucks a few years back it was frequently reported. This strikes me as strange.

As Poecile says, slightly tongue in cheek, this is a concern for the atlas and the accurate monitoring of birds in the UK. That, to me, is why ID matters.

BobTag said:

As Poecile says, slightly tongue in cheek, this is a concern for the atlas and the accurate monitoring of birds in the UK. That, to me, is why ID matters.

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Not tongue in cheek at all, really. it's a big worry. If it's this questionable for Whinchat/Stonechat, just imagine what it's going to be like for my old favourites, Willow/Marsh Tit. With Willow Tit having crashed, and any remaining populations now being vital to the conservation and survival of the race, what is needed is accurate data to know where those birds are. Not a load of unsubstantiated records based on whether it's going to a bird table or not (cf Collins and other threads), or seems to have a bull neck, feeding right into the 'official' records. It's ok getting anyone and everyone to map the distribution of collared doves, but it needs a bit of expertise to map Willow Tit. And, going by the recent thread of that bird in Ayrshire, even county record committees can't tell the difference.

think before you open your mouth

dubs1967 said:

Whinchat?are u on drugs!

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that was a totally inaproppiate thing to say

Poecile said:

Not tongue in cheek at all, really. it's a big worry. If it's this questionable for Whinchat/Stonechat, just imagine what it's going to be like for my old favourites, Willow/Marsh Tit.

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Poecile,
I saw, and heard, a Marsh Tit very well in a small wood near Stansted Airport last month, while waiting for a flight from there to Marseilles, and I can assure you that that's one bird that WAS IDd correctly...
(for the record, I noted the pale horizontal stripe on the bill, buffish area to the rear of the ear coverts and 'pitchoo' calls)
On the subject of mistaken IDs in the Atlas, I know for a fact that a potentially huge mistake was only corrected due to us making contact with the person who submitted the record...the pics taken proved it to be something else entirely. This is not meant as a slight on the observer who submitted the 'record'...after all, we all have to start somewhere...but it was a bit worrying that something so rare here could just be submitted online like that, without any scrutiny.
Regards,
Harry

rainton meadows is great said:

that was a totally inaproppiate thing to say

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Please, all that bad blood was a long time ago and shouldn't be read again, all involved went over that at the time.

It seems that a more constructive discussion on Whinchat winter occurances, the new atlas and the importance of bird ID to conservation - please can we try to keep this thread's new frame of reference to that? Suggest that's best for all involved.

Maybe if this thread is going to continue, the mods could separate off everything after post#106 into a new thread, to avoid people reacting to the older part of the thread, which is water under the bridge.

Odd dates as well as out of location records will be scruitinsed by county rarities committees before being published in county bird reports. It just needs a feedback system to birdtrack to make sure any "unsafe" records are identified.