This may interest you. A couple of messages sent to us from ##
From: # #, Sent: 09 November 2000 09:30, Subject: One to watch
Apparently there is a Pallas' type warbler in Lowestoft without any yellow tones , and no crown stripe. (My pager doesn't give me all the info). The rumour mill on UKBirdnet is pointing to the possibility that this bird may be a Chinese Leaf Warbler (unlikely) , to the point that ringers may be going in later on in the day!!
Theres so many rumours on this site that it is often hard to work out the truth but I thought I'd let you know.
From: ## Sent: 10 November 2000 09:29, Subject: Suffolk Warbler update
Another update and what looks like an interesting bird following on from the earlier reported thread:-
The warbler seen in Lowestoft for the last 2 days looks very unusual. When first seen it looks like a typical dull Yellow-browed lacking any yellow tones. However it displays a clearly defined white (not yellow) rump seen when hovering low down. Hence it is probably a very washed out Pallas` Warbler. However a number of factors do not add up: the Yellow-browed like jizz and appearance, the lack of a distinct central crown stripe, the loud disyllabic call and the apparent lack of much black contrast on the coverts between the wing bars. Having just spoken to a couple of birders with experience in China this description seems to point towards the possibility(remote) of it being a Chinese Leaf Warbler (only described a few years ago but now thought to be more numerous than imagined, my friend saw 5). Does any one know the migratory range of this species, I believe it shares a similar range to Long-tailed Shrike and is it a potential vagrant?
As noted elsewhere the call is quite wrong for Chinese Leaf Wabler (P. sichuanensis) but the description does fit Brooks's Leaf Warbler (P. subviridis) as far as some characters are concerned: the indistinct crown stripe, the loud disyllabic call [a loud 'chwee' rather like that of Hume's Warbler (P. humei)], and the apparent lack of much black on the wing-coverts. The rump is not white but is usually distinctly pale. The species is sympatric with Long-tailed Shrike (Lanius schach) in Turkmenistan and, as with that species (and Wire-tailed Swallow) it migrates south-east to north-west India in the autumn. It is, thus, a potential reverse migrant and, although not accepted for the W. Palearctic, there is a record from Orenburg, Russia in September 1882. I note that Birdguides was listing it as a Yellow-browed/aberrant Pallas's first thing this morning but had reverted to Yellow-browed this afternoon!
From: ## Sent: 09 November 2000 11:14 Subject: Pallas' Update
The following notes regarding call seem to rule out CLW.
Sounds interesting. The only Chinese Leaf Warbler I've seen (N Qinghai June 2000) had an apparently typical and most distinctive whip-like call, quite unlike any other phyllosc I've heard, which might seem to rule this bird out?
Not sure about CLW's range, but off the top of my head I'd suggest NC China wintering to N SE Asia (certainly had been trapped in N Thailand), so nowhere near as far W as Long-tailed Shrike but it may well migrate further.
##