While Fife Bird Club (FBC) continue to work towards the next Fife Bird Report, there are other ways in which your records are of great value. We have recently sent off records to the Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP) for inclusion in their report on rare breeding birds in the UK, published in British Birds (BB). The most recent report published in BB and included records from Fife.
The term rare breeding bird likely makes most people immediately think of Schedule 1 raptors requiring specialist monitoring but there are a wide variety of species involved, including many that we can all record in Fife. A good example is water rail, undoubtedly under-recorded due to its secretive nature but very easy to hear! Simply recording this species presence at a wetland site over consecutive weeks in the summer months is likely to indicate breeding activity. Patient scanning of the water’s edge in July/August could also produce a glimpse of young birds with less colourful plumage than the adults.
Any records of rare breeding birds submitted to the recorder will be treated in full confidence and where appropriate, e.g. for Schedule 1 species, data will be published without reference to names of localities or names of observers in the context of FBC publications and reports published by the RBBP.
The county recorder is happy to take records of rare breeding birds in other formats e.g. word files but in consideration of reducing workload we urge observers to contact the count recorder regards obtaining a Fife Records Spread Sheet.