“GREEN FARM” WARBLER

Birders on Scilly in October 2006 may well remember the much discussed warbler at Green Farm, St. Mary’s. Many people believed to be a Syke’s Warbler. It was eventually trapped and biometrics showed it to be a Booted. Even so some people still doubted the identification, supposing the measurements were mistaken. Fortunately when the measurements were taken the bird shed a few feathers, these were kept and sent for DNA analysis. The results received from Urban Olsson confirm that the bird was indeed a Booted Warbler. The BBRC panel had voted 10:0 in favour of Booted on the basis of their ID criteria paper, although many saw why Syke’s had been suggested, especially on the long-billed look it gave.