Entries on Latest News page

To make an entry on the Latest News page, begin with the name of the site or the area, followed by a colon. Then list the interesting species seen, with additional information that might be of interest to others. End with the observer’s name (not just initials) in round brackets.

Your entry may be edited to facilitate automatic database extraction.

More detailed guidance appears below.

Formatting Please follow the standard format used by everyone else when entering your records in order to assist automatic compilation of your records into the LNHS database.


 * Posts which do not adhere to the format required by the extractor will be edited
 * Do not over-punctuate
 * Avoid '2m, 3f' especially
 * Use well known species and site names
 * Spell correctly
 * Avoid vague site names like 'Lee Valley Park'
 * Include OS ref if new site
 * Include Post Code for street sites (e.g. for Waxwing)

Birding sites

 * Site names For sightings at well-known birding sites, begin with the name of the site. For less well-known sites, it is more helpful to begin with the name of the area rather than using the name of a street, local park, etc, on its own. For example, “Greenford (Jubilee Park)” is more helpful to most readers than just “Jubilee Park” -- a name shared by several parks in London.
 * Links to site pages For sightings at major birding sites, it may help other birders if you include a link to the site’s “Local patch” page, if it has one. To make a link, highlight the site name and click on the chain link icon at the top of the editing panel. This brings up a panel headed “Create or edit a link”, with two text boxes each containing your highlighted text. If the words “Page exists” appear above the end of the “Target page or URL” box, then click “OK”; if the words “Page does not exist” appear, then either the site does not have its own page or you have entered the site name in a way that is not recognised. If necessary, visit the “Local patches” page to find an acceptable version of the site name. Alternatively, copy and paste a previous entry.
 * Alphabetical order Entries should be listed in alphabetical order by the name of the site.

What to report

 * Keep it interesting The main purpose of the Latest News page is to help London birders (and the compilers of the annual London Bird Report) by letting them know about interesting sightings in the London area. These should include reports of all rarer species, plus sightings of commoner species if they appear in unusually large numbers or in unexpected places or if they exhibit uncharacteristic behaviour. (The page will be of little use if it gets clogged up with trivial site records such as “20+ Woodpigeon, 4+ Magpie”, but you are welcome to keep such records elsewhere on the London Bird Club wiki, either added to the end of a Local Patch site page or on a separate page you have created for your personal use.)
 * Scarce breeding birds The one important exception to the above guidance relates to scarce breeding birds. DO NOT post details of breeding by species included in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, as amended). It is an offence to disturb such birds and their young at or near the nest, and the inclusion of a report might lead to visits by reckless birders or even egg-collectors. Instead, please report such sightings immediately to the appropriate London Natural History Society bird recorder. (You may also wish to inform trustworthy regular birders at the site in question, so that they do not accidentally disturb the birds.)

Species names

 * Preferred names Use the preferred species name, such as Little Grebe rather than Dabchick and Dunnock rather than Hedge Sparrow.
 * Capitalisation Follow the standard birding convention of using a capital initial for each word, except after a hyphen.
 * Full names Don’t be lazy. Spell out all species names in full. It only take a couple of seconds longer to write “Great Black-backed Gull” rather than “GBB Gull” or “Spotted Flycatcher” rather than “Spot Fly”. Consistent use of the full name helps with the archiving of records and makes it easier for other website users to search the Latest News page and the archived files for records of particular species.
 * Spelling Try to get the names right, taking particular care with the use or non-use of hyphens. For example, “Great Crested Grebe” is correct because it means a large grebe with a crest, whereas “Great-crested Grebe” would mean a grebe with a large crest; on the other hand, “Red-necked Grebe” is correct because it means a grebe with a red neck, whereas “Red Necked Grebe” would mean a red grebe with a neck. With other species, common sense should similarly tell you the correct name structure. Other correct spellings worth noting are Chiffchaff (not Chiff Chaff or Chiff-chaff), Shoveler (not Shoveller), Whinchat (not Winchat), Sparrowhawk (not Sparrow Hawk), Treecreeper (not Tree Creeper) and Woodpigeon (not Wood Pigeon).

Other details

 * Location For a large site, you should include an indication of the precise location where the bird was last seen, to help other birders find it. If the bird was seen leaving the site, or was just passing overhead, then make that clear so that other birders do not make wasted journeys to the site. And also indicate the direction in which the bird left the site, so that nearby birders can look out for it.
 * Number If there is more than one bird, give the number or an estimate of numbers.
 * Plumage Note any distinguishing plumage features (eg, m/f, ad/juv, winter/summer).
 * Behaviour Record any interesting behaviour by the bird.
 * Time Record the time only if it is relevant, e.g. for a fly-over raptor or for when a bird was known to have departed. Put the time after the species name, not before (which confuses the database extract). Do not use the '@' character.
 * Sex To indicate the sex of a bird use "m" or "f" rather than the Mars/Venus gender symbols. If you wish to list the numbers of both sexes, use  "2m 3f" rather than "2m, 3f" because, to help with database extraction, commas should only be used to separate different species.

Observer

 * Observer’s name  End the entry with your name in parentheses. Please do not use just your initials, even if you are well known in the London birding community, because there are bound to be readers of the page who do not know you, and there may be other London birders with the same initials. And if you are not identifiable, the LNHR may have to ignore your records when compiling the its annual bird reports.
 * Multiple observers' names  If a bird was seen by two or three observers, then include all names. Where there are many observers, then either use the name of the birder who first found the bird or use an accepted generic description such as “Brent Birders” (Brent Reservoir) or “The Scrubbers” (Wormwood Scrubs).
 * Multiple postings from the same site  If you add an observation to a record already made by someone else at a site you have visited, then use a semicolon rather than a full stop to separate your report from the previous observer's record. Using a semicolon helps with automatic database extraction.

General hints

 * Unwanted formatting commands  If you have created your entry offline using word processing or text editing software, please do not transfer formatting commands into a Wikia page -- all reports should be in plain text (apart from Wikia’s own formatting commands). If you are not sure whether you have carried over any formatting commands, click on the “Source” tab in the editing page to find out. Mac users can easily avoid transferring formatting commands by holding down “alt” and “shift” as well as “cmd” before hittiing “v” to paste the text into Wikia.


 * Dialog/Comment Text  If you want to add a comment to a record, please use italics and avoid using round brackets, which may confuse the database extractor. Try to preserve the observer name for the database extractor.
 * Emoticons   Do not use smilies or other emoticons, which confuse the database extractor.