Lothianrecording area

Area covered

West Lothian, City of Edinburgh, Midlothian, East Lothian, including the islands of Bass Rock, Craigleith, Fidra, The Lamb, Inchmickery and Cramond Island. Click here for a detailed map.

Local recorder

David Kelly
20 Market View
Tranent
East Lothian
EH33 1GA
tel 01875 614072

Record submission

All records should be sent to the Local Recorder whose address is given above. Records must be submitted by 31st January if they are to appear in the Annual Report. It would be appreciated if those who birdwatch regularly in Lothian were to submit their records every three to six months. Records can be in Voous order or date/locality order. Various computer databases can be accepted including a Microsoft Works or Excel Spreadsheet (eg the 'Borders Database' Excel format) or a table in a Word document. As a last resort, a basic text file could be used - with commas to separate the fields. The important thing is to include the following fields: species, number, age/sex etc, locality, date, comments. Please enclose an SAE if you require an acknowledgement.

Lothian Bird Report

See the Lothian SOC website for details.

Forth Islands Bird Report

Available from

Forth Seabird Group
c/o Vane Farm
Kinross
Tayside
KY12 7LX

Recording of unusual species in Lothian

For species considered rare at a local level to appear in the Lothian Bird Report, they have to be assessed by the Lothian Bird Records Committee (LBRC). The list of species the Committee considers has undergone some minor revisions in recent years - eg the removal of Mediterranean Gull and Nuthatch, and addition of some species dropped by Scottish Birds Records Committee. However it has long been realised that a more thorough review was required, not only to reflect the changing status of some species locally, but also in recognition of recent taxonomic changes. To this end, the Committee met in December 2007 and reached a number of conclusions.

The Committee felt that a more statistical approach was required to determine those species considered as opposed to the current somewhat 'ad hoc' species list. Analysis of the data produced some interesting results, and the Committee decided that the list should comprise of all species with an average of three records or less in the most recent five-year period for which data was available (initially 2001-05). This is broadly in line with a number of other local records committees in the UK.

As a result, the following species are no longer considered by the Committee:

The following species, not previously considered by the Committee, now require a description:

Unfortunately, it is a sad reflection on the status of some previously regular species in Lothian that they now appear on this list. It is vital therefore that we document properly all records of these species so that their true status can be accurately recorded. To this end, the Committee would urge all observers to submit descriptions for those species considered. These need not necessarily be lengthy and detailed, feather-by-feather accounts – a few lines outlining the main features seen will normally be sufficient for acceptance. Photographs often make the assessment of records significantly easier and are welcomed, with or without accompanying notes, depending on their quality. It is the intention of the Committee that further reviews will take place at five-yearly intervals to keep abreast of both changes in species' status as well as possible future taxonomic changes. A full list of those species considered by LBRC is below.

The preferred method of description submission is via email to the Secretary, Brendan Doe. You can download a Rare Bird Record Form in Microsoft Word format (or browse a list of the details required) from the Bird Recording in Scotland page. The Committee will also endeavour to assess those records where photographs appear on websites such as the SOC and Birdguides, but have not been submitted directly. Such records will therefore not be 'lost' and will then appear in the Lothian Bird Report (subject to acceptance). In such circumstances however, the record will be credited as, eg "per Birdguides.com", ie the finder will not be acknowledged.

It is hoped that these changes will help reflect more accurately the current status of those locally rare and scare species in Lothian, as well as making the workings of the Committee more transparent.

We look forward to receiving your submissions in the near future!

Records considered by LBRC from Jan 2008

Written details should be submitted for the following species/sub-species:

The Lothian Bird Records Committee, comprising Alan Brown, Colin Davison, Keith Gillon, Mervyn Griffin and Mark Wilkinson, will consider local rarities. The Scottish Birds Records Committee will consider Scottish rarities and the British Birds Rarities Committee will consider national rarities. Occasionally, the Recorder may request notes for species or sub-species not appearing on this list, when they occur outside their normal range or on unusual dates.

All rarity descriptions should be sent direct to Colin Davison or Keith Gillon. Email is preferred, but descriptions can be sent by post to

Colin Davison
27 Old Craighall
Musselburgh
East Lothian
EH21 8SE

Scottish rarities (ie those in capitals on the SBRC List) should also be sent to Colin or Keith, who will forward them to SBRC.

South-East Scotland Bird Atlas

Lothian and Borders regions have joined forces to run a local Bird Atlas project in parallel with the national 2007-11 Bird Atlas. For more details, including information on how to take part and preliminary species maps, see the South-East Scotland Bird Atlas website at www.the-soc.org.uk/se-atlas.