Radde's Warbler
Phylloscopus schwarzi (Radde, 1863) (1, 0)
Photo © Phil Woollen - Fair Isle, 29 September 2023
Ex BBRC species 31/12/2005
STATUS
Eastern Palearctic. Monotypic.
OVERVIEW
This Siberian species arrives here during October and has become so numerous that it has been taken of the BBRC rarities list from 2006.
There is only the one record for this period.
RECORD
1). 1898 Lincolnshire North Cotes, first-year, obtained, 1st October.
(R. Bowdler Sharpe, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 8: 6; Eds., Zoologist 1898: 520; J. Cordeaux, Naturalist 25: 23; H. Saunders, Ibis 1899: 1-4; G. H. Caton Haigh, Knowledge 22: 41; BOU, 1915; Witherby, 1920-24).
History R. Bowdler Sharpe, Editor (1898) in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, Vol. VIII. p. 6, at the 55th Meeting of the Club held on 19th October 1898 at the Restaurant Frascati, London, says: 'Mr. G. H. Caton Haigh exhibited and made remarks upon a Warbler, Lusciniola schwarzi (Radde), which he had shot on the 1st of this month, near North Cotes, Lincolnshire. The large bastard-primary easily distinguished the members of this genus (and those of Herbivocula) from the Phylloscopi. The summer-home of L. schwarzi appeared to be in South-eastern Siberia, and reached about as far west as Tomsk, according to Godlewski, who had mentioned the powerful note of the bird; this was described by Mr. Haigh as disproportionately loud, and it led to the thorough beating-out of the hedge in which the bird was skulking. It would be remembered that easterly winds had prevailed for a considerable time....A coloured figure of the specimen would appear in the next number of the Ibis.'
In an Editorial (1898) in The Zoologist, 4th series, Vol. II. p. 520, it says: 'At a meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club, on Oct. 19th, Mr. G. H. Caton-Haigh exhibited and made remarks upon a Warbler (Lusciniola schwarzi, Radde), which he had shot on the first of that month near North Cotes, Lincolnshire. The large bastard-primary easily distinguished the members of this genus (and those of Herbivocula) from the Phylloscopi. The summer home of L. schwarzi appeared to be in South-eastern Siberia, and reached about as far west as Tomsk, according to Godlewski, who had mentioned the powerful note of the bird; this was described by Mr. Haigh as disproportionately loud, and it led to the thorough beating-out of the hedge in which the bird was skulking. It would be remembered that easterly gales had prevailed for a considerable time. So far, L. schwarzi seemed not to have been previously recorded within the European area. A coloured figure of the specimen was to appear in the next number of the Ibis.'
John Cordeaux of Great Cotes (1899) in the new series of The Naturalist, Vol. XXV. p. 23, says: 'At the meeting on 19th October of the British Ornithologists' Club in London, Mr. Haigh exhibited an example of this East Siberian species, which, after much careful watching, he obtained on 1st October from a hedge at North Cotes, near the coast. Mr. Haigh was first attracted by the very peculiar and loud note of the bird, which he said was equal to that of one several times the size, and it is curious that the Russian Godlewski makes mention of the same fact. L. schwarzi has hitherto not been recognised west of Tomsk in Eastern Siberia, so that its occurrence in the Humber district is the more remarkable. The bird will shortly be figured and described in the Ibis.'
Howard Saunders (1899) in The Ibis, Vol. XLI. pp. 1-4, says: 'For the discovery in England of this Warbler from Eastern Siberia ornithologists are indebted to the persistent researches of Mr. G. H. Caton Haigh. On the 1st of October last, according to his custom at the time of migration, Mr. Haigh was diligently "working" the hedge-rows which border the long sea-banks on the Lincolnshire side of the Humber, and, when near North Cotes (where he obtained the first British specimen of the Greenish Warbler), he was attracted by a strange and particularly powerful note. Thereupon the hedgerow was thoroughly beaten out, and the owner of the loud voice proved to be the warbler in question - a bird about the size of a Wood-Wren. Easterly winds had been prevalent for some time....The young bird, like Mr. Haigh's specimen from which the figure (Plate I.) is taken, is decidedly more olivaceous on the upper parts. The bill is stout and deep for a Warbler, and the three rictal bristles are very strong, but the supplementary hairs do not extend up the culmen nor cover the nostrils as in Phylloscopus (Oates).'
Admitted nationally in their second List of British Birds (BOU 1915).
