Thursday 18 March 2021

LAVISHLY-ILLUSTRATED BOOK SHINES A LIGHT ON THE WEALTH OF BIRDLIFE IN LINCOLNSHIRE

                                                                  


HUGE plaudits to the four ornithologists who have compiled an authoritative new  book, Birds of Lincolnshire.

Phil Espin, Phil Hyde, John Clarkson and Colin Casey are all long-serving members of the Lincolnshire Bird Club which has this week  published the lavishly-illustrated 240-page volume.

Included are accounts (often with distribution maps)  of the 650-plus different  species that have ever been recorded in the county, the first being a rose-coloured starling near in Grantham way back in 1783.

The focus also falls on two 21st Century Grimsby rarities - an American robin that spent almost three months on an industrial estate and a black-throated thrush that spent several weeks on grassland at the front of the Grimsby Institute.

The cover illustration, from a painting by Nik Borrow, depicts a Pallas' sandgrouse - a species that turned up in the county in large numbers on coastal dunes in several years in the 19th Century but, alas,  never since 1899.

Produced in A4 format, the book also contains  comprehensive  information both on the range  of county habitats and on star  birding locations such as Gibraltar Point, Frampton Marsh, Covenham Reservoir  and the Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe nature reserve.

Says Louth-based Phil Espin, who is LBC chairman: "Lincolnshire has always  enjoyed an astonishing richness of  birds - many of them occurring in or around Cleethorpes, Grimsby and Immingham.

"Every year, rarities of one sort or another turn up both on the county coast and inland.

"These have ranged from tiny species such as lanceolated warbler to large ones such white-tailed eagle and even a yellow-nosed albatross which was improbably seen near Scunthorpe."

Birds of Lincolnshire is available price £39.99 (including postage) from Wild Sounds Ltd https://wildsounds.com or at the discounted price of £33 (including postage) for members of the Lincolnshire Bird Club https://www.lincsbirdclub.co.uk

                                               


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