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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HH75" data-source="post: 1292441" data-attributes="member: 61">Hi all,   This all brings back memories of a warbler that was found near Midleton (Co. Cork) in spring 2004. It was originally felt to show characters of Booted Warbler, and, as I had missed the first Irish record in Sep 2003, and Midleton is only 20 minutes or so from Cork city, I went down to look as quickly as I could.   After arriving, the bird soon showed, and my initial reaction, based on the immediate shock of such a pale warbler, was that it had to be a Booted. However, the more I looked at it, the more it seemed not quite to fit, and, when I started to have doubts, it transpired that others, to varying degrees, had their own doubts also. In the end, I finished up agreeing with the subsequent consensus that the bird was NOT a Booted Warbler, was most likely an aberrant Phylloscopus, and I personally believed that it may have been a Chiffchaff, as it had flicked its tail, but Killian, on seeing shots later, felt that it was more likely to have been a Willow Warbler, and, as I have seen since, these can and do flick their tail, though this is rarely as deep and 'fluid' as Chiffchaff's tail-pumping.   This mystery bird is, in many ways, quite similar to the Midleton warbler. It looks a bit better for Booted, to my eyes, in the first pic, though one would expect the species to show, among other features, a longer supercilium behind the eye, a dark upper border to the super and so on? While mindful of the oft-quoted Phylloscopus-like impression of Booted, however, I am left wondering whether it is TOO much like one in the second image?    Oddly enough, I can also see some Garden Warbler character in the second image, namely in the region of the vent and tail, though I would have difficulty, based solely on these images, in seeing it as one. I can't completely EXCLUDE Booted with 100% certainty, owing to variability within most warbler species, but, let me assure people, it certainly is possible for a 'Phyllosc' to look quite similar to this, and the two commoner species should surely be excluded from consideration before Booted can be claimed...                                               Regards,                                                   Harry</blockquote>

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