NEWSLETTER September 2000 Editorial

Welcome to the September Newsletter.  

The committee has decided that it would be a good idea if local site guide articles were to become a feature in all  future newsletters.   To start the ball rolling, Robin Griffiths has  produced an excellent article on Jenny Brown's Point.   Coincidentally I have just been asked to write two site guides relevant to this area for  Birdwatching magazine. 

However, it does worry me that we have two broadly different recipients, relating to an issue brought up in conversation the other day.  The gist of this was that the difference between birdwatching and walking as leisure pursuits is becoming very muddy.   In other words, birdwatching for many people is walking with binoculars round your neck.   These people wish to see a clear map showing a varied route along with birds of interest they may come across.  Such readers are not too bothered about whether there is high pressure over Scandinavia during their walk, whether the wind is two degrees to the south of optimum and are most certainly not bothered about being referred to as 'dudes' by Bill Oddie.  It is a relaxed 'take it or leave it' with respect to the birds encountered.       

It is important, however, that the vast swathe of people who happily fit into the above category are not regarded as the be all and end all with respect to your site guide readership.  Unless people really understand how to birdwatch the particular site in the recommended conditions, they are likely to be disappointed.   The feedback to Birdwatching magazine has suggested that oft-repeated cliches such as "good for migrant passerines in easterly winds" are completely inadequate for many aspiring birders.  It is one thing being told that a Barred Warbler is frequenting a particular patch of bramble on Beacon lane at Spurn but what price finding it on your own with no other birders around and you didn't even know anything was lurking therein.  The normal definition of a 'walk' will not find you a Barred Warbler lurking in a bramble bush, it may alert you to a Yellow-browed Warbler in a sycamore if you are familiar with the call and it will connect you with the Red-backed Shrike sat on a fence-post alongside the footpath (but not two fields away?).   Therefore "good for migrant passerines in easterly winds" should really be interpreted as 'stop walking, start meticulously searching every available cover and expect to progress at less than 400 metres per hour at heavily vegetated sites'.   The site guide should describe the cover in detail.  The large hawthorn bush next to the blue gate is worth a good five minutes, the bramble bush on your left after the stile is worth a 'detailed examination' (kicking?!), the sycamore next to the chip shop is worth a prolonged wait, as for the Doctors garden... (c/f Hartlepool Headland!).   Then more generalist autumnal advice such as "Does this site appear to have its own tit flock(s)?  If so, find them and see what they are 'dragging along'".   The last sentence is excellent advice, I suggest, for Jenny Browns Point/Jack Scout.

Despite a fair selection of oddities turning up in mist nets at, for example, Heysham Obs. and Fluke Hall over the last fifteen years or so, the main problem with existing site guides on this side of the country has not involved passerines but seabirds and other tidally-determined species.  The lack of extra attention to detail with respect to tides, time of year, wind direction and general weather conditions (notably visibility) has perhaps been missing.   Usually, a combination of  these has to be 'correct' to produce the goods.   I would be a very rich man if I received £1 from every person turning up on a nice sunny day to visit Heysham outfalls 'just in time for the tide'.   'Just in time for the tide' (and the calm weather) to have completely cleared every bird off there & Red Nab.  In rough conditions, birds will remain feeding on the outfalls over the tide.   Then there is the wind direction.  There was one occasion in recent years when a nameless individual went down to the Mersey 'because it was more reliable for Leach's Petrels than Heysham'...in south-westerly winds.  There have been several articles over the years in Heysham Obs. reports,  LDBWS reports and indeed Newsletters going into some detail on weather, tides and birds.   Please take note of these when you visit these "precise conditions" sites otherwise you will be very disappointed. 

Therefore watch the weather and act accordingly if it involves the likes of seawatching.  Hopefully, by the time this has been written and through your letterbox, the forecast will have been correct and Leach's Petrels making an appearance off JBP, Stone jetty and Heysham on Thursday and Friday (6th-7th September).   See 'Recent sightings', which will be deliberately left until Friday night.  If the forecast is wrong, don't bother.  A few years ago, Birdline North-West ran a justifiable 'Go to Heysham' message based on a confidently-forecasted south-westerly gale.  It was flat calm & drizzly and c30 people were wandering around looking for Leach's.  One small group saw  'a flock of Leach's flying rapidly out of the Bay'.  It was not logged, and, as regards correcting, you could not even begin to mention the word  'waders' after they had been told what to expect.

If you really do want to have a go for passerines, look at the synopsis for 26th September 1985..and pray for more of the same.  This was the amazing day which produced 3-4 Yellow-browed Warblers at Heysham in minimal early-morning coverage (the first records in the LDBWS area) and three Red-breasted Flycatchers and a Yellow-browed Warbler at Walney.   No-where else in the thin band of dawn rain from the weak occlusion within an easterly airflow around a high pressure system was covered (e.g. Heysham golf-course copse, Fluke Hall & JBP): 

If you do find anything of interest during the course of the autumn, please make sure you inform someone as soon as possible (it will save yourself a lengthy written description!).  Dial 144.  After the voice prompt ring 326467758321.  This is the freephone to Birdline North West.  If you have a mobile (freephone dialling not possible), my mobile number is 07989866487 and I will ensure the news is spread and any access restrictions made clear.

Please could you send articles for the next newsletter to the LDBWS e-mail address (see Ken Harrisons article) or to the Secretary's home address by: 9th December

End of year records:

With respect to thorough documentation in the annual report, we are particularly struggling for records of the more regular passage waders such as Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint and even Greenshank from the Conder Green to Pilling Lane Ends stretch of coast. 

This statement has been printed in this newsletter to give you chance to get out there whilst the birds are still about!