Darrell Clegg
Well-known member
I hope BF members will forgive me for going on about it but that Pipit is still at Looe.
Steve Madge, myself and a few friends who hadn't seen it before spent the whole day there yesterday and still came away feeling that we don't know what it is.
Whenever we are away from the bird we can convince ourselves that it must be a Rock Pipit in extreme plumage. All is then right in the birding world and we can go off and look for other things. Unfortunately we keep going back to have another look at it, and every time we do the doubts creep in. There are just too many inconsistancies with Rock Pipit. The complete eye ring, the bold, long supercillium, the pink legs, the bold spotting, the short tail.
Having said that, it shows the same number of inconsistencies for every other pipit species - Water Pipit for instance. It has pink legs, Water Pipit should be dark. It has buff underparts, Water Pipit should be greyish white. It has a complete eye ring - etc etc.
I think I need help - preferably psychiatric!!
Darrell
Steve Madge, myself and a few friends who hadn't seen it before spent the whole day there yesterday and still came away feeling that we don't know what it is.
Whenever we are away from the bird we can convince ourselves that it must be a Rock Pipit in extreme plumage. All is then right in the birding world and we can go off and look for other things. Unfortunately we keep going back to have another look at it, and every time we do the doubts creep in. There are just too many inconsistancies with Rock Pipit. The complete eye ring, the bold, long supercillium, the pink legs, the bold spotting, the short tail.
Having said that, it shows the same number of inconsistencies for every other pipit species - Water Pipit for instance. It has pink legs, Water Pipit should be dark. It has buff underparts, Water Pipit should be greyish white. It has a complete eye ring - etc etc.
I think I need help - preferably psychiatric!!
Darrell