Dermot Breen's Blog: Melodious Warbler, Slyne Head, October 18.

Friday, 29 March 2019

Melodious Warbler, Slyne Head, October 18.

I found a hippolais warbler in the Trident Garden at Bunowen on Slyne Head on 13th Ocotber of last year. The bird showed briefly but reasonably well however at a distance and in poor light as can be seen in the poor record shots below. The bird appeared very pale grey in the field and initially even suggested Olivaceous Warbler but wasn't quite right. The primary projection looked rather long at the time, it displayed a pale tertial panel and given the strong grey tones I opted for the Icterine Warbler option at the time. On review and in consultation with others it was clear that it was in fact a Melodious Warbler. Aonghus O'Donaill, Cathal Forkan, Richard Hunter and Eamonn Larrissey managed to twitch the bird with a little difficultly. I only saw the bird on one more occasion despite checking on several days after finding it. The bird appeared to just disappear into the middle of the garden and probably stayed in there not being particularly mobile. It was last seen on 20th October. It was another relatively poor year for the species in Ireland with only three others being reported in the Autumn. There's only one previous accepted county record which was found by Paul and Andrea Kelly on Inishmore on 5th Ocotber 2015. There is also only one county record of Icterine Warbler which was also on Inishmore in the following year.
A few pictures of a few Yellow-browed Warblers that were in the same garden around the same time.