Thursday, 24 October 2013

Not Sure

With a late start at work I got down to Marden Quarry this morning. First bird was The Siberian Chiffchaff which I picked up on call and had great close views of a very pale Chiffchaff. After viewing photos, are the cheeks too dark?

Siberian Chiffchaff?
 
The next bird was we at the time thought Pallas's Warbler. In the field the jizz was all wrong for Yellow-browed Warbler, looking bull headed and short tailed with very prominent black eye stripe and yellow supercilium and double wing bars. I left for work happy with the tick, but after uploading the photos has the look of a very strongly marked Yellow-browed Warbler. To confuse the issue the bird was calling like a Pallas's. Comments very welcome as yet I have the box unticked.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

4 comments:

  1. Yellow browed for me, no distinct crown stripe and no clear yellow rump, i got some photos of the bird birders were calling pallas's but its only a yellow browed im afraid :( get the tipex out lads.

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  2. Agreed, this is a yellow-browed. But does that mean it had been mis-identified to start with or was there actually a Pallas's present?

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    1. The bird in robs and my photos were getting ticked as a pallas's but as the photo shows its clearly a ybw. Ive heard from other birders who have looked at the photos and agree with ybw. Over the course of 3 days the bird was present someone must have a shot of a pallas's if one was there, only ybw photos are about? Which would suggest there was no pallas's? I didnt see 2 birds in the 2 hours i was there and i dont think 2 birds have being seen over the 3 days, its a dodgy one ;) get it off your lists :) lol

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    2. Plenty of time for a real one! I know a couple of Bubo lists need trimming. Good news on the Sibe Chiff though. Joe put me onto a paper on Birding Frontiers. Seems like a lot has gone into Chiff race id since the last Collins. I'll wait for the armchair tick!

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