Guidelines for Contributors

Last updated: 19th October 2018

General guidance

Before you send in your bird news, please take a few moments to read our guidelines.

The Latest Bird News page is intended to alert birders to rare and scarce species in the county. Records of common species, birds in gardens etc should be submitted via LROS Recorder (see the Bird Recording page for details), and are summarised in the monthly Field Notes in The Grebe.

Rare and scarce breeding birds will not be mentioned on the Latest Bird News page.

This includes all Schedule 1 species at potential breeding sites; in Leicestershire this mainly concerns the following species: Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Cetti’s Warbler, Barn Owl, Hobby, Little Ringed Plover, Peregrine and Crossbill, although withholding news of other species may be deemed necessary from time to time. Please note that some of these species remain in their breeding areas all year round, so will not be mentioned at any time of year.

Emailing News

Please use the following address to send your news:

birdnews@lros.org.uk

Please give your email a relevant subject line (e.g. ‘bird news’, ‘bird reports’, ‘Rutland Water 3rd April’ etc).
Please remember to include the DATE of your sightings in the body of the email.
Please give as much detail as you can on the exact location of interesting birds at larger sites: for instance, “Firecrest at Cossington Meadows” may leave other potential observers frustrated!

Species to Report

In general, anything which is listed as ‘scarce’ or rarer in the Annual Bird Reports will probably be of interest, and other species may be of interest in context – e.g. early or late migrants, and counts of commoner species such as waders.

It is not possible to give a definitive list of what is or isn’t ‘newsworthy’, as this changes from season to season, and even from year to year as species become commoner or rarer. Also, some species (such as commoner waders) may not be particularly interesting on their own, but may be added to a list of other species at a site to give an overall feel of ‘what’s around’.

Some examples of species that regularly get reported to us which aren’t of great interest as ‘news’ to most people include Goosander, Goldeneye, Mandarin, Shelduck, Little Egret, Buzzard, Red Kite, Peregrine, Water Rail, Oystercatcher, Woodcock, Yellow-legged & Caspian Gulls, Barn Owl, Little Owl, Kingfisher, Raven, Siskin, Lesser Redpoll, and common migrants once they have arrived in numbers (summer or winter). It is of great importance that these and other ‘common’ species are properly recorded, but they should be submitted to the Society via the electronic recording form or on record slips. Please see the Bird Recording page for further details.

Escaped/feral species (including Ruddy Shelduck and Ring-necked Parakeet) and hybrids will not be reported on the website unless there is a possibility that they might be wild – e.g. White-headed Duck, Red-crested Pochard etc, or if there is a genuine risk of confusion with a (rare) wild species.

Photos

Digital photos are always welcome; images of rare and scarce birds in the County will be used on the Latest Bird News page. Good quality photos of commoner species will be added to the Photo Gallery.