Lesser Whitethroat

hopeless images but my earliest ever Lesser Whitethroat by a day --

patch Tree Pipit and a few oddments

came across this Tree Pipit yesterday oddly in light south-westerlies; I only get Tree Pipit on my patch about once in four or five years so this was a notable bird -- first noted when it flew out of the back of a bush and gave the very quiet psee call that I associate more with Olive-backed! it then dropped into some rank grass and failed to show for 15 minutes -- when I flushed it agin it gave a slightly more TP like call but still not loud -- views though confirmed it was not a patch mega just a real goody;

one of those Lesser Whitethroats

presumably a sandy blythi? -- nice bird and a seemingly subtly different chuck call to the nominate chacks-- should have recorded it before it flew off!!!

Lesser Whitethroat tones

what do people make of this Lesser Whitethroat plumage -- location etc after discussion

a few additional Lesser Whitethroat images

again taken in very dull conditions on 11th -- it would seem to meet all? of the criteria proposed by Colin Bradshaw in his 2009 paper see below -- in some of the images there is an out of focus branch across the bird's wing -- the feathers on the forecrown were wet due to foraging in the marram grass

• Field-only claims if ever acceptable would require :

• Watched for a protracted period of time with close views

• Brown on nape

• Lack of contrast between crown and mantle

• White throat contrasting with peachy or buffy flanks and breast

• Lack of clear dark mask

• Lores paler than usual

• Sandy or pale to mid-brown upperparts

• Short-winged/long-tailed jizz

• Tit-like call

• Preferably tail noted as lots of white in outer tail and centre not contrasting with mantle

Desert / Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat

On the morning of November 8^th at Donna Nook Lincs there had clearly been a good arrival of thrushes, mainly Blackbirds, but also up to 30 Robins and a few other birds; one of the first birds we came across was a  small sandy coloured warbler that I immediately thought looked good for an eastern, recently central asian, Lesser Whitethroat. The bird landed in a small hawthorn but then quickly went down into the marram where it was catching caterpillars; it could be easily overlooked and we lost it for an hour or so but it could generally be found in the grass or low in the scattered elders and hawthorns where it seemed to go when disturbed. It was strikingly pale sandy on the upperparts and with a contrasting whitish throat and upper breast then a peachy – buff lower breast, belly and flanks. The bill was short and the head pattern weakly marked compared to nominate Lesser Whitethroat with a white crescent below the eye being more obvious than the weak crescent above; most of the features of the bird are shown in the attached photos with a poor OOF flight shot that shows the extent of white in the outer tail feathers. Its jizz was often reminiscent of Desert Warbler tipping forward when feeding and even burrowing into clumps of marram when searching for food; 

The most distinctive feature of the bird apart from its looks was its call a mid toned dry rattles series of notes described as trrrrrrrrrt total dissimilar to the call of nominate birds.
I have attempted to upload two poor quality recordings of the call on YouTube link below   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0js9PwYsWo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3NMx_GruXQ

Compare the calls with this recording of minula
http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Sylvia-minula

It looks very similar to the bird in Aberdeen British Birds 98 (11) Eastern Lesser Whitethroat in Aberdeen and the same bird in Birding World 17 (12) 502 – 504 Apparent Desert Lesser Whitethroat in Aberdeen. But as all authorities seem to say making sub-specific identification between minula and halimodendri in a vagrant context is not practicable; the plumage and calls however, make these birds a different bird to our summer breeding Lesser Whites.

Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat?

more pics and discussion later but a quick post on this Lesser Whitethroat that presumably can be fitted into the central asian box the only result from 15 miles of Lincs coast flogging for rare wheatears and desert warblers yesterday -- Donna Nook November 9th --

Lesser Whitethroat

at least 5 males on the 17th - this one was singing from about 40 feet up in an Ash tree