On Friday 21st June 2013, the news of an Icterine Warbler in Notts was released over the Bird Information Services. Any Hippolais warbler inland is a good bird. As it was also a Midlands tick, I decided to go look at it. The bird had been discovered on Thursday 20th but the news was only released on Friday 21st. The bird was singing from a conifer plantation, close to a small village called Tiln, near Retford in North East Nottinghamshire. The local news was that apparently the bird had responded to tape of Icterine Warbler and showed a pale wing panel. Upon arrival a number of departing birders made comment to us on how difficult it had been to see it well. Some stated that they had only brief views during 3 hours of observation but the bird had been singing on and off.
We arrived on site around 6pm after a dreadful journey through Friday afternoon traffic on the M1. A number of local birders were on site and gave us the "low-down". Suddenly after a few minutes the bird began to sing and was located on the tip of a small distant conifer. Through binoculars the bird appeared to have a pale wing panel and had yellowish underparts. At the range the bird was showing, I could not see any obvious wing formula. I fired off a few record shots, luckily before the bird disappeared. I had never heard Icterine Warbler song before, so this was a new experience for me. There seemed to be a lot of mimickery in the song but it wasn't as loud as I had expected, rather grating and scratchy and not too disimilar to Olivaceous Warbler. All seemed OK on the brief but reasonable views that I had. We stayed for about another 45 minutes and during that time I only heard the bird and never saw it again. Around 7pm we left for the journey home.
At 11pm I received a text message to say that the "Icky" was in fact a Melodious Warbler. Photos had been posted on a couple of internet sites, which showed the primary projection to be extremely short, too short in fact for Icterine Warbler.
So there lies a learning curve – When viewing a species that is tricky to identify (such as Icterine v Melodious) –
1) Make sure you get good views and make up your own mind on the identification;
2) Never automatically assume that someone else has got the ID right;
3) Ensure you are familiar with the birds key ID features and the birds song;
4) Take a good look at your photos and check on the salient features of the bird –
Had I done this last night, I may have noticed the short primaries a lot sooner than I did – after the event!! Oddly enough, Melodious Warbler is probably the better of the two birds and I dare say a new species for Nottinghamshire. Year list moves on to 199
Above three images – Melodious Warbler – Tiln, near Retford, Nottinghamshire – Tony Davison©
Note – The appearance of a pale wing panel; The short primary projection, (between half & two thirds of the tertial length) showing the primaries to be evenly spaced (on Icterine they get progressively wider apart towards the wing tip) this feature was not easy to see in the field; The leg colour, more browny-grey than blue-grey of Icterine; The emarginations appear to fall just inside the tertial tip. This wing pattern gives the effect of a longer appearance to the tail and seems to be the deciding factor on the birds ID. As far as the song is concerned, I'll take a rain check on that one!! I really need more experience of the song of both species. Just goes to show the power of photography in our modern birding.
