as everyone should know, as everyone should subscribe to British Birds, the latest issue includes a paper by Lars Svensson, Subalpine Wabler variation and taxonomy, detailing the proposed 3-way split of Subalpine Warbler into Western, Eastern and Moltoni's
If the split is accepted and it probably will be then clearly all future Subalpine Warblers will need to be well documented in the county with sound recordings if possible; past records will no doubt be scrutinised to see where they fit and trapped birds should be easily identifiable if data on tail pattern was recorded; at present there are only 9 county records as detailed below and only one has been identified as Eastern Subalpine the male at Humberston May 12th - 13th 1981 -- it seems unlikely but if anyone has photos of this bird or any good notes they would be most useful. It is assumed that the other birds were all Western, as were the two most recent in 2011 and 2013 but no details have been published on any of the earlier birds.
Subalpine Warbler; Ingoldmels male May 11th 1970 North Cotes male May 14th 1976 Humberston male S.e.albistriata May 12-13th 1981 Now become S cantillans albistriata Gib Point female May 7-14th 1983 [photod] Pyes Hall male May 23rd 1985 Theddlethorpe male trapped June 28th Theddlethorpe female trapped September 15th 1996 Humberston Fitties April 3rd 2011 Western Subalpine first-summer male Gib Point April 20th 23rd 2013 first-summer male Western Subalpine
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