Where to find information? (1 Viewer)

Hi,
I'm not sure I'm in the right forum to ask this question, but I hope I'll get the answer!
I would like to check rarities records through Europe (especially UK) in the last years.
When I check RBA weekly roundups, they say like "40 records accepted so far in the UK". But where do I find this precise information? When and how much birds, etc...
I know that for us french, this kind of data is available on www.ornitho.fr

My real question behind this is to know the proportion of all phylloscopus warblers records throughout the UK in the last years

Thank you

You can review the Annual rarities reports for Britain on the British Birds Website https://www.bbrc.org.uk/resources however this only seems to start at/go back to 2011

Unfortunately the Phylloscs I suspect you are interested in - Radde's, Pallas's and co - will not be contained in BBRC reports since they have not assessed those species for the last dozen or so years. Birdguides database will have the info you are looking for but you'll have to subscribe for full access.

Britseye said:

Unfortunately the Phylloscs I suspect you are interested in - Radde's, Pallas's and co - will not be contained in BBRC reports since they have not assessed those species for the last dozen or so years. Birdguides database will have the info you are looking for but you'll have to subscribe for full access.

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That's right

And my real real question is: before fall starts, which Phyllosc call sound should I learn, if by chance I hear one of them where I live (western France but not near the coast)?

For example, by checking french reports, I am suprised how few records we have of Greenish Warbler (as this species doesn't feed *that* far from us) among all rare Phylloscs, YBW at 1st place.
According to CHN (http://www.chn-france.org/chn_donnees.php) France has 29 records of Greenish, beside plenty of Yellow-browed Warblers.
Almost all of them were seen along the western coast during fall, just as YBW. So why so few Greenish?

Is french proportion Greenish / Yellow-browed the same as the english one? Do we miss lots of Greenish?
There are 60+ Dusky Warbler records for the same period, although the species feeds much farther than Greenish, and unless I'm wrong, it's not easier to find one than a Greenish...

Unfortunately, as opposed to you, we don't have a birder inside every bush of our country, and we miss most of rarities

Anyway, I was just adding some statistical input to my search for fall rarities...

It probably has more to do with the migration routes of the birds.

The Greenish goes east from europe whilst YBW is expanding westwards.

Just thoughts...

I suspect effort at key sites is important too, in terms of the low return of greenish warblers. Peak time for greenish on the east coast of the UK is late August. Peak effort at French sites such as Ouessant, Sein etc is mid October. I suspect that were there more birders looking for migrants at west coast sites in the first week of September, there would probably be a few more records of greenish warbler. I'll be on Ouessant for the first week of Sept, and greenish warbler is certainly on my radar for that week.

If you want to learn some phyllosc calls, I'd recommend making sure you know the full range of variation in chiffchaffs first! Then go for YBW and Siberian chiffchaff, as they're the ones you'd have the most realistic chance of bumping into (and they're both pretty distinctive).

Gduff said:

That's right

There are 60+ Dusky Warbler records for the same period, although the species feeds much farther than Greenish, and unless I'm wrong, it's not easier to find one than a Greenish...

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My comparatively limited experience is that Dusky tend to call more frequently than Greenish, at least in autumn/winter, which would make them easier to find. Maybe others can agree or disagree with this?

Larry Sweetland said:

My comparatively limited experience is that Dusky tend to call more frequently than Greenish, at least in autumn/winter, which would make them easier to find. Maybe others can agree or disagree with this?

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We used to see dusky in Nepal in small garden, hedges in cafes in Pokhara and they would call almost all the time. I also think that they regularly forage much lower than Greenish?



A

Dusky was one of the first phyllosc calls I learned in Asia, because they call so much.

And by my experience they're low to the ground and found in brushy gardens (as Andy noted).

Ditto to Dusky calling much more often than Greenish; most Greenish only give a call or two per hour or two, very easy to miss.

Likewise, Yellow-browed call frequently, whereas Pallas's only call very rarely.

Jeff hopkins said:

Dusky was one of the first phyllosc calls I learned in Asia, because they call so much.

And by my experience they're low to the ground and found in brushy gardens (as Andy noted).

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Talking about Dusky Warbler in fall, do you check every bush when you hear a 'tack tack' call, where it turns out that 99.9% are Blackcaps?
Can experienced birders distinct both calls without seeing the bird?
Even on sonagrams it's not obvious to tell the difference...

Gduff said:

Talking about Dusky Warbler in fall, do you check every bush when you hear a 'tack tack' call, where it turns out that 99.9% are Blackcaps?
Can experienced birders distinct both calls without seeing the bird?
Even on sonagrams it's not obvious to tell the difference...

Click to expand...

Dusky Warbler call is very distinctive when you know it, despite what sonograms may suggest. It has a 'wet' 'sticky' quality with a much softer vowel in the middle than the Blackcap, i.e. tuc rather than tac. I concur they are very vocal, which counteracts their skulking habits enabling them to be located even when they can't be seen initially. They almost invariably call in flight. All three I've come across in UK/Ireland where heard calling first.

Radde's Warbler, despite being a chunkier bird, generally has weaker, softer calls and they don't announce themselves as readily as Dusky. I say calls because they have a tendency to be a bit more variable than Dusky along the lines of 'strrk trrk' or chwit chwit , not in the least 'hard' in quality. Only one of the three I've come across in UK/Ireland was located on call.

Much closer to Blackcap, to my ears, are the calls of a variety of rare visitors to Britain such as Blyth's Reed and Sykes's Warbler. I sometimes even have problems distinguishing them from Lesser Whiterhroats. One time on Cape Clear Island I couldn't work out whether the bird I could hear calling was a Blackcap or a Lesser Whitethroat, so I went to investigate and discovered it was actually an eastern Olivaceous.