The Madness Of Definition

Not just a daft pun on the last post's title, but we'll get to that in a bit.



Yesterday was not supposed to be an out chasing tweety birds day. I did get about the Patch with optics, but that was purely in the course of Doing Important Things. Anyway, I saw nowt fancier than more Swallows.


Then I get in for a late look at the computermabob [just in case, you understand..] and lo and behold, Grandmaster Lakin has scored at the Warren.
What will you do?


We could get to definitions, here [yes, we're talking birds, 'species', and all that stuff...] but I'll once more hold off.


Anyway, I'd never seen an Eastern Subalpine Warbler before, and no flavour at all in Spring Singing mode.. So, I put aside something I really shouldn't have and over I toddled.

To cut things short, there were a fair few still there. Fortunately, this included the bird. Unfortunately, the bird was being a right git and hiding in a Great Big Very Dense Tree.. This one;

Tree.

Looking for the bird was an exercise in patience, persistence, and sheer blind luck.

"It is in there, really.."

Yes, I wondered what you're thinking, too.

Anyways, I could only give it a couple of hours, due to having to get up at aaaaarrrgghh o'clock this morning, and in that time I got 4 decent looks*. The first time I was busy deciding that yes, it definitely was an eastern, and the rest I was distracted getting everybody else to where I was, and so I do not have anything even vaguely as good as you will find elsewhere. [Apparently, I was 'the fourth from last' and it showed really well right after I'd had to leg it...]

I did, however, get two little bits of it in my attempts [which weren't helped by not being able to see what I was shooting when I was shooting...]. Yes, you get inflicted upon;

Top of picture, just right of centre..

Top of head and eye, turned towards camera

Just below centre of picture, in [behind] fork in branches

Side of neck/throat showing moustache!

Yes, they really are that bad.


There was some discussion about whether it was an Eastern or a Moltoni's [ok, from one source, and quickly put paid to by the bird itself :) ], which made me even more determined to go on about this pet peeve of mine once more. But as I type, I wonder.. 'What is the point'?

All I shall do is wonder why there are now two full flavours of Subalpine Warbler, plus various shades, when we can differentiate by plumage, call, breeding range and so on, yet these matter less than statistical quirks of DNA..?



In other news, the good thing about being at work in daylight was the chance to look out the canteen window and actually see.. Well, usually not much.  Today there was a Swift. :)



Be Seeing You..


[[*You could see the bird. See it was the bird. Through bins. For multiple seconds.]]