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Hume’s Warbler, Scratby Hall area, Dec 4th-Dec 10th. T.E. Allwood and R Irvine

 

Not in TG42 but an interesting background to this one - a reward for our persistence and optimism - and kind of ties in with the Waxham bird two years later. Ryan called on the Sunday Oct 4 to let me know that Barry Jarvis had seen a Yellow-browed Warbler near Scratby Hall and that it was "calling funny". We both immediately had the same thought and I said I'd go down and check it out. I spent a few hours there but left empty handed. We resolved to try again and both spent a fair amount of time there over then next couple of days. By Tues afternoon, nothing had transpired and we probably would have knocked it on the head but events took a turn... The following morning Ryan heard a humei call and dashed home to get his recording gear but upon his return there was no sign of the bird but with a humei present somewhere, he decided to stick it out.

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Around 3:30 pm, I was on my way home from school and decided to try one last time. Ryan was waiting and as I approached him along the edge of the belt of trees, a Hume's Warbler miraculously began calling. Our four-day vigil had paid of, but now we had to see it. The calls were not exactly nearby and we managed to locate it in a clump of trees in a small pit in the centre of a ploughed field. The light was going but we used all our pishing and stalking skills to coax it into view, finally being rewarded with excellent close-ups as the dusk descended.

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Plumage

We eventually observed the bird at close range on the afternoon of Wed Dec 7th with Ryan Irvine. We were stood on the inside of the very small clump of trees in the ploughed field. The bird did a few slow circuits around us in this clump, at head height and below. It was possible to observe the bird with very few branches in the way, allowing the bird’s plumage to be seen reasonably well and it was studied at a range of 3-10m.

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On first sighting the bird appeared incredibly grey-toned above and quite white-below. It was clearly and distinctly different from a typical green-toned inornatus. The head of the bird was quite like that of a Dusky Warbler, with the white supercilium contributing to this effect. There was a clear grey central crown stripe and this grey tone was present in the mantle too. Good close views also showed that there was a clear buff tone to the throat and upper breast/breast sides. The bill was all dark, lacking the paler orangey tones of an inornatus.

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The median covert bar was essentially absent, being very hard to see in normal views. The greater covert lacked any yellow tones, being a whitish buff. The area between the two wingbars was much less dark than on inornatus, and the wing in general was much less contrasting. The legs were dark, again at variance with the leg colour on inornatus.

 

Voice

By far the most frequently given call was the typical loud and far carrying “chu-wit” or chu-wee” call, reminiscent of a Pied Wagtail, Spotted Redshank or even Greenish Warbler. A downward inflected “sweeoo” call was given on a very few occasions, and we also heard a straight and seemingly uninflected note on a couple of occasions. Sound recordings were made and a sonogram appears below

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Once we had heard the bird and had good views the identification as a Hume’s Warbler was straightforward. The plumage on the upperparts was very dull and grey-toned helping to eliminate any thoughts of a dull inornatus and the call was that of a typical humei. At no time did the bird give any call that was reminiscent of a Yellow-browed Warbler. We subsequently saw the bird very well on Sat 10th of Dec where all of the above features were noted and again the call was given repeatedly. The bird was seen well over the period of its stay by many observers.

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Below is a recording I made (bottom) compared to a known humei from xeno-canto (top)

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