Fairburn Ings Greenish Warbler (1 Viewer)

Went to Fairburn Ings this afternoon, arrived at 15.30 hoping to miss the crowds. Went to the Pickup hide initially and saw a hovering female kestrel. Nothing much else of note. Couple of Moorhens. Went back to the car and wandered round to the Lin Dyke hide. Not masses here either, Cormorants, Coots, Tufted Duck, Mallard and Grey Heron. Saw Blue, Great,Willow/Marsh and Long tailed tits on the way back to the car. Greenfinches, Great and Blue Tits on the way to the Bob Dickens hide. Once there saw Mute Swan, Lapwing, Mallard, Common, Herring, Black-headed and Lesser Black-Backed Gulls. Also Coots, Great Crested Grebe. All the above at the Village Bay Hide plus Cormorants, 30+ Gadwall and a single female Shoveller. Was wandering round to the cut hide at the eastern side of the reserve when i started watching a large flock of Long Tailed tit. Saw a Phylloscopus warbler. With a wing bar and dark legs. Much too green to be eroneous marked chiffer or Willow warbler. Observed for about 2mins before i lost it amongst the trees and it didnt show again. Convinced it was a Greenish Warbler :bounce: Went to the cut hide and saw three juv Grey Herons fighting plus lots of waterfowl already mentioned. All good. Was next to dark so headed home very happy. B

Hey there James

sounds good - right time of year and a wing bar.

u will probably get some grief off people if it's not around tomorrow though. Best to write a proper description ASAP and a sketch and send to the County Recorder or Mick Rogers/BBRC

atb
tim

cheers tim, will do, not sure what the sketch will look like

artistic ability is not too important James

they are often very useful.....

Hi James,
Tim is right: if artistic ability came into it, then I'd never get any records accepted by the IRBC! The best thing to do is to try to draw the bird while watching it, as this forces one to look more closely at the bird, and note what can actually be seen, not what the observer would like to see....
I still struggle on, and can't really draw that well, but the discipline of drawing is quite helpful to improve one's observational abilities. Taking written notes on things like call, plumage tones, behaviour etc will also help.
Apologies to all those with cameras: I like to defend the art of note-taking, but have no axe to grind with digiscoping etc, and feel that both disciplines complement each other.
Harry

As i have no scope and the bird wasnt calling i relied on my notes. I always take notes on strange birds. Usually quite brief but to the point. Thanks for the tips tho Harry.

Hi James,
No problem. Certainly sounds good for a Greenish, and there seem to be a fair few on the east coast of the UK recently. Hope it gets accepted in due course, include as much detail as you can from what you noted, even if it seems relatively unimportant.
Harry

Cant see it getting accepted as i was about the only person on the reserve let alone near the bird at half seven but ive submitted it along with the details i managed to pick up. Hopefully someone sees it tomorrow.

If briefly seen and not calling - hard to see it being accepted as Arctic would be difficult to eliminate....
Sorry for being negative

James, if you can't tell marsh from willow tit I'm not convinced about your greenish either!

I'm only joking, good luck with it.

The marsh/willow tit was seen for about 1 sec as it wizzed across the path! I did think about the lack of calling presenting problems relating to arctic. Im not fussed about it being accepted, just sent it in because i thought i should.

Hi Jason,

Jasonbirder said:

If briefly seen and not calling - hard to see it being accepted as Arctic would be difficult to eliminate....
Sorry for being negative

Click to expand...

True enough, but the dark legs would be better for Greenish than Arctic, and it is a little early for the latter species. Nevertheless, it would be hard to fully rule Arctic out unless such detail as whether the supercilia met above the bill etc was noted.
Harry