Tynemouth Lesser Whitethroat Update

It now looks like the Lesser Whitethroat that has been wintering in Colin Bradshaw's garden in Tynemouth is probably a Siberian Lesser Whitethroat Sylvia curruca blythii.

 

Information received yesterday (Friday 21st) from Martin Collinson and his team at Aberdeen University, shows that:

'The DNA sequence was identical to that from several Kazakhstan specimens of Lesser Whitethroat thought to be blythi' whilst, 'Svensson, and prior DNA work, suggest that both blythi and halimodendri are in a Central Asian clade that is distinct from curruca'.



Siberian Lesser Whitethroat (blythii). Tynemouth (Northumberland). 10 January 2014. 

 

 

Yellow-rumped Warbler, High Shincliffe, Durham: 10 February 2014

Photograph from yesterday's successful twitch of the Durham Yellow-rumped Warbler, with two-year-old son in tow.  Monster!

Yellow-rumped Warbler. High Shincliffe (Durham). 10 February 2014.