We now prefer to receive Lothian bird records via BirdTrack, the online recording system operated by the BTO, the RSPB, BirdWatch Ireland and the SOC. All you need to do to get started is sign up as a BirdTrack user and register the sites where you birdwatch. It will create a personal ‘diary’ you can view online and your records will automatically be made available for the production of the Lothian Bird Report (provided you permit the local recorder to access them).
We do however continue to accept records sent directly to the local recorder at the address above. Various formats can be used:
- A Microsoft Works or Excel spreadsheet, ideally this should be the standard Lothian SOC Excel spreadsheet which will ensure species names are consistent with those used in our master database; a day of the week check is also embedded
- A Word document or equivalent. Records must be in a table format, with a column for each field.
- As a last resort, on paper – but only if less than one hundred records, due to the time required to transfer to computer.
In all cases the important thing is to include the following information clearly separated into columns: species name, count (just digits), age/sex etc, locality, date (dd/mm/yyyy), comments.
Lothian Bird Report
First published:
1979
Editors:
Ian Andrews, Keith Gillon, and David Kelly.
Published by:
SOC Lothian branch
Latest issue:
The latest report, covering 2021, was published in autumn 2024. For the second year running our largest issue ever, with 166 pages packed with information and colour photos. Details are given for every species recorded in 2021, together with summaries for every species ever seen in Lothian. There's an article on the Western Bonelli's Warbler at Barns Ness, and the results of the annual Mute Swan census. This year there's a seabird theme, with an overview of the Seabirds Count census, a study of inland nesting Black-headed and Common Gulls, and the results of the roof-nesting gull survey.
Cost:
£15 per copy.
Available from:
The report can be purchased from the SOC HQ at Waterston House, and from the Viking Optical Centre, 101 Rose Street, Edinburgh.
We can also post the report, with payment by bank transfer or by cheque payable to SOC Lothian Branch. Remember to include p&p - see below. Please email Stephen Hunter for payment details.
Back issues:
Back issues can be obtained by post from Stephen Hunter. The 2020 issue costs £5 plus p&p. The 2019, 2017, 2015, and 2014 reports have sold out, but we have copies of all other reports back to 2005. These cost £2 each plus p&p.
Postage and packaging:
First class p&p to the UK costs £4.30 for one report, and £5.20 for up to three.
For postage outside the UK, please email us for details.
Supplementary information:
2020 Report: Blackness Bay and its birds
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). Following a review in December 2007, the Committee adopted a more statistical approach to determining those species assessed. Analysis of the data produced some interesting results, and the Committee decided that the list should comprise all species with an average of three records or less in the most recent five-year period (for which data was available). This is broadly in line with a number of other local records committees in the UK.
A revised list of those species now requiring a description by LBRC is shown below.
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. We thank all those observers who have submitted their descriptions in the past, and would encourage any observer fortunate enough to find any of the species below to submit a description. This need not necessarily be a lengthy and detailed, feather-by-feather account – 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 updates to the list will take place at regular intervals to keep abreast of both changes in species’ status as well as future taxonomic changes.
The preferred method of description submission is via email to the Lothian Bird Records Committee (see below), copying the Lothian Bird Recorder. 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, e.g. “per Birdguides.com”, i.e. the finder will not be acknowledged.
Records considered by LBRC from 1st January 2025
Written details should be submitted for the following species/subspecies:
Bewick’s Swan
Tundra Bean Goose
Taiga Bean Goose
Snow Goose
American Wigeon
Green-winged Teal
Garganey (not adult males or pairs)
Ring-necked Duck
Surf Scoter (not adult males)
Smew
Ruddy Duck
Black-necked Grebe
Balearic Shearwater
Great Shearwater
Storm Petrel
Leach’s Petrel
Bittern
Great White Egret
White Stork
Spoonbill
Honey-buzzard
Goshawk
Rough-legged Buzzard
Golden Eagle
Hobby
Spotted Crake
Corncrake
Crane
Avocet
Dotterel
American Golden Plover
Temminck’s Stint
Pectoral Sandpiper
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Red-necked Phalarope
Grey Phalarope
Long-tailed Skua (juveniles only)
Sabine’s Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Turtle Dove
Nightjar
Hoopoe
Wryneck
Shore Lark
Richard’s Pipit
Water Pipit
Yellow Wagtail (except British race flavissima)
Bluethroat
Blyth’s Reed Warbler
Eurasian Reed Warbler
Marsh Warbler
Icterine Warbler
Barred Warbler
Pallas’s Leaf Warbler
Wood Warbler (non-singing birds only)
Firecrest
Red-breasted Flycatcher
Bearded Tit
Willow Tit
Eurasian Golden Oriole
Red-backed Shrike
Great Grey Shrike
Hooded Crow
Rose-coloured Starling
Olive-backed Pipit
Common Redpoll
Common Rosefinch
Hawfinch
Corn Bunting
Little Bunting
Subspecies
Kumlien’s Gull (Larus glaucoides kumlieni)
Siberian Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita tristis)
The Lothian Bird Records Committee, comprising Colin Davison, Keith Gillon, Norman Milligan, Mark Holling 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 Jarrod Hadfield (copying Stephen Welch).
Scottish rarities and British rarities should also be sent to Stephen Welch, who will forward them to SBRC or BBRC.
