Records
Recording the changing patterns of bird numbers and migration through the seasons and years is the lifeblood of any bird observatory and Flamborough is no exception. The work of the Recording Group at Flamborough fundamentally relies on those members who regularly provide their records of migrants, breeding birds, significant counts, frequently watched patches etc.
Submitting these records within a short time, preferably on the day of the sighting, helps the team operate efficiently as it helps them keep on top of the records. I ask you to make a positive contribution to the Observatory’s work by supplying your records through email to fborecords@hotmail.com.
Those of you who “log” sightings onto other systems, perhaps online, please also send them in them by email because trawling various blogs and websites such as eBird, Birdtrack and others to get as complete a picture of bird numbers and movements as possible is hugely time consuming for the team and also means that, inevitably, some records will be missed.
The recording area covers the whole headland so in addition to Flamborough, please also submit your records for the area west of Danes Dyke including Bempton, Buckton, Speeton and Sewerby to fborecords@hotmail.com.
Where scarce or rare birds are involved that require a description please email your submission including any photographs, sound recordings or other evidence directly to BBRC or YNU and inform us that you have done so.
Thank you for your continued support and for all the hard work and many hours spent at Flamborough recording birds and helping us meet one of our principal aims which is to encourage volunteers to participate in scientific studies of birds and migration.
All the best and wishing you a great time birding on the Great White Cape.
Submissions
Submissions need not be onerous to prepare. Often a good quality photograph showing the salient identification features is sufficient. If you were lucky enough to find a rarity on the headland last year please submit your submission as follows:
All records pertaining to national rarities should be submitted to the British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC). The process to submit a record to BBRC can be found here. A list of species for which descriptions are required by BBRC is available at https://britishbirds.co.uk/rarities-committee/rare-birds.
Similarly, claims for species requiring a description for Yorkshire should be submitted to the Yorkshire Naturalists Union Rarities Committee; the list of species requiring a description in addition to those listed on the BBRC website is as follows:
Black Brant
Taiga Bean Goose
American Wigeon
Ring-necked Duck
Surf Scoter
Alpine Swift
Black-winged Stilt
American Golden Plover
White-rumped Sandpiper
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Lesser Yellowlegs
Ring-billed Gull
Kumlien’s Gull
White-winged Black Tern
White-billed Diver
Wilson’s Petrel
Glossy Ibis
Night-heron
Purple Heron
Honey-buzzard
Black Kite
White-tailed Eagle
Montagu’s Harrier
Rough-legged Buzzard
Golden Eagle
Red-footed Falcon
Woodchat Shrike
Chough
Penduline Tit
Short-toed Lark
Red-rumped Swallow
Radde’s Warbler
Dusky Warbler
Greenish Warbler
Arctic Warbler
Dartford Warbler
Blyth’s Reed Warbler
Marsh Warbler
Melodious Warbler
Rose-coloured Starling
Red-flanked Bluetail
Citrine Wagtail
Olive-backed Pipit
Parrot Crossbill
Ortolan Bunting
Cirl Bunting
A complete up to date list can be found here. The process to submit a Yorkshire rarity can be found here.
In addition, there are several species which are rare within the local context and these require describing in order to feature within the Flamborough Headland Annual Report. Such species include Spotted Crake, Corncrake, Bee-eater, Nightjar, Woodlark, Richard’s Pipit and Golden Oriole. Copies of rarity submissions and a list of sightings made by visiting birders will be greatly appreciated and will be acknowledged in future reports. Please send these submissions to fborecords@hotmail.com
Photographs
We welcome photographs of any species, not just scarce or rare birds, for inclusion on this website, in annual reports or to support records submission.
To avoid creating extra work pre-publication, please send your images in JPG format and sized to a maximum of 1200 pixels on the longest side. On publication, photos will not benefit from higher resolutions than this on being displayed. If, for any reason, a higher resolution image is required, we will request it from you directly.
All photos will be credited, please send them to fborecords@hotmail.com.