UK vintage mystery Phylosc challenge! (1 Viewer)

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

I will give more details, including photo credits, and my reason for posting, after there have been some opinions posted. This is not a trick question, though it is potentially quite tricky. I, for one, will not berate any wrong answers, in fact I was wrong at the time, as were most observers, and maybe we are still...

30-40 years ago I turned up to twitch another species, just as this bird was found. I include my brief notes straight from my notebook and a couple of photos. 1st October, Southern Britain are the only other clues. Have a go and if possible say why you think it is what you think it is.

"In first patch of bushes by car park, XXXX WARBLER flitting around, flew off calling loud, sharp 'tseuk' unlike any other call I have heard from a Phylloscopus. Eventually seen well in shade and sunlight. Well-built bird bigger than Chiffchaff, olive-green upper-parts and grey-white under-parts, not as silvery as Bonelli's Warbler, greyish tertials. Very broad, creamy supercillium turned up at ends. Brown eye and black thin line below supercillium. Bill long, upper mandible dark brown, lower pale yellowish. Pale legs. Well defined creamy coloured wing-bar on greater coverts, maybe just one feather pale on median coverts near bend of wing but rest of secondary bar missing."

 

[KenM]

My first “from the hip” impression was Arctic Warbler on less than perfect images.
However no coincidence regarding a putative first for the Western Palearctic rung in Finland just a few days ago.....?😮

 

[Butty]

I will give more details, including photo credits, and my reason for posting, after there have been some opinions posted.

I much prefer to be given all the available information, including other people's opinions, at the outset. Anything else is like being set a 'test'.

 

[cheshirebirder]

Arctic’s presumably the first consideration ? No doubt it turned out to be an odd chiffchaff !

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

I much prefer to be given all the available information, including other people's opinions, at the outset. Anything else is like being set a 'test'.

The clue was in the word ‘challenge’ 😉

I deliberately don’t want to sway any one in any direction. Otherwise I would have said what I and others thought, and what was later considered.

There is no shame in giving an opinion, based on the limited evidence presented here. There is also no pressure in having to play my game. Feel free to watch from the sidelines though.

 

[sicklebill]

This reminds me of another controversial Phyllosc at Holme on 14-19 October 1976 identified at the time as an Arctic and then many years later thought more likely to be Two-barred Greenish, though sadly never accepted as such. I wrote in to the Rarities Committee with my transcription of the call and got slapped down wih a dismissive comment about not being able to idenify Phylloscs from the call, at which point I shrugged, gave up and ticked it off regardless......

 

[PYRTLE]

Arctic Warbler for me too, based on those images and also a fond memory from finding one on my lunch break at Holme NWT - noticed by a harsh distinctive call in the pine belt behind "The Firs" ( Autumn 2009 ).

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

Thanks for the few comments.
Fuller details as follows: I was twitching a Parula Warbler at Hengistbury 1st Oct 1985 when this bird was found. It was a tick for me and many others at the time. Consensus was that it was an Arctic Warbler.

It was later trapped and stayed until 3rd October and was pronounced to be, and accepted by BBRC,as a Greenish Warbler.

I was never happy with that. I feel my description and the photos, such as they both are fairly limited, still indicate Arctic over Greenish. The date is more favourable too. I do appreciate that maybe we didn’t/couldn’t see things that the ringers did, though that raises the other issue of what if it had never been trapped? Maybe it gave better views over its 3 days and was worked out in the field, I don’t know. Maybe some vintage Christchurch Harbour Birders can tell us?

I don’t know what the in hand criteria is that distinguish AW from GW. Or whether there is an overlap zone. Maybe someone who has rung both might be able to tell us?

The other thing that prompted me to post this now is obviously the fact that a Kamchatka Warbler has now turned up in Europe, what are the chances that this could be one too? (Rhetorical question, as I know the answer😉)

Photos from Greenish Warbler

 

[Grahame Walbridge]

Thanks for the few comments.
Fuller details as follows: I was twitching a Parula Warbler at Hengistbury 1st Oct 1985 when this bird was found. It was a tick for me and many others at the time. Consensus was that it was an Arctic Warbler.

It was later trapped and stayed until 3rd October and was pronounced to be, and accepted by BBRC,as a Greenish Warbler.

I was never happy with that. I feel my description and the photos, such as they both are fairly limited, still indicate Arctic over Greenish. The date is more favourable too. I do appreciate that maybe we didn’t/couldn’t see things that the ringers did, though that raises the other issue of what if it had never been trapped? Maybe it gave better views over its 3 days and was worked out in the field, I don’t know. Maybe some vintage Christchurch Harbour Birders can tell us?

I don’t know what the in hand criteria is that distinguish AW from GW. Or whether there is an overlap zone. Maybe someone who has rung both might be able to tell us?

The other thing that prompted me to post this now is obviously the fact that a Kamchatka Warbler has now turned up in Europe, what are the chances that this could be one too? (Rhetorical question, as I know the answer😉)

Photos from Greenish Warbler

Yes, the bird was initially identified as an Arctic Warbler, that much is correct. If my memory serves me correctly, the bird was re-identifed in the field by, AFAIK, none other than Per Alstrom, but I am not certain of exact timings. The bird was trapped the following day (2 Oct) when the identification was, not surprisingly, confirmed.

Separation of AW complex from GW complex in the hand is straightforward; all members of AW complex lack an emargination to P6 and all the GW complex have a longer P1 than borealis although, both examinandus and xanthodryas have a longer P1, but it still falls short of GW. There is little chance that experienced ringers screwed this up in the hand.

The bird was silent on the 1st when I visited the site but uttered perfectly typical Greenish calls on a return visit after it had been trapped.

So, in answer to your last question, absolutely none!

Grahame

 

[Bismarck Honeyeater]

Yes, the bird was initially identified as an Arctic Warbler, that much is correct. If my memory serves me correctly, the bird was re-identifed in the field by, AFAIK, none other than Per Alstrom, but I am not certain of exact timings. The bird was trapped the following day (2 Oct) when the identification was, not surprisingly, confirmed.

Separation of AW complex from GW complex in the hand is straightforward; all members of AW complex lack an emargination to P6 and all the GW complex have a longer P1 than borealis although, both examinandus and xanthodryas have a longer P1, but it still falls short of GW. There is little chance that experienced ringers screwed this up in the hand.

The bird was silent on the 1st when I visited the site but uttered perfectly typical Greenish calls on a return visit after it had been trapped.

So, in answer to your last question, absolutely none!

Grahame

That’s really interesting, Grahame, thanks very much. I was hoping a local would give me the inside story.

I still think it’s a tricky bird (or perhaps I should invoke the ‘two-bird theory’).

Interesting that PA got it right, even in the field. Just shows how much experience counts for.