A call from my patch birding neighbour had me hot footing up to the dam end of Alton Water reservoir, with my two year old in tow, staring at a cracking summer-plumaged pipit. I will say now, that my first words were "you have a Scandinavian Rock Pipit here". I don't know why, from the depths of my birding brain (when I actually did a fair bit) it just felt like one. I know "it just felt like one" doesn't hold much truck with a rarities committee. Anyway, twenty minutes later, we were walking away talking about and yes, I put out the news, of a summer-plumaged Water Pipit. White outer tail, brown mantle, no malar, stonking supercilium. Easy. Was I conveniently glossing over the lack of wingbars or shall I blame my nose-diving son for not giving the bird fuller attention?
Later the afternoon, a few record shots came my way and here they are:
I received the top one first and the mantle colour seems 50/50 between grey and brown, which immediately cast doubt on my original ID. I then received image two and three, which sent me back towards water pipit.
Now I think: sod it, blog it, stick it on Twitter and see what people say. Just be polite about it please.
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