[Lancey]

Dear all,
I videod a pipit at Oare Marshes in north Kent, England, yesterday which appears to be a Water Pipit in my opinion,but can Scandinavian Rock Pipit be fully ruled out? I understand a significant number of Rock Pipits that winter on the coasts of SE England are of this form? Although I didn't notice at the time the bird appears to be ringed too. The warm colour tones in a few photos reflect the brightness of the day when I photographed it, but not, alas the chattering of my teeth while filming!

[Brian Stone]

Pipits again... I reckon this is a Rock (littoralis or petrosus). This is going mainly on the face which doesn't look nearly strongly marked enough for Water Pipit. But having seen what has gone before I am very cautious about naming birds from pics like these.

The wingbars don't look very bright either. Can you describe how it appeared in the field?

[Ruby]

Hi Lancey,

I'm afraid that I can't help with the Pipit id - in fact I posted a similar query about a bird that I saw at Oare myself a few months back. General consensus was that it was probably a Rock Pipit but not possible to be 100% sure...

Isn't Oare a great place.... did you see anything else good?? (thinking of heading down that neck of the woods at the weekend...)

[Jane Turner]

I'd have to (just) put my money on an unusually clean underneath Rockit... but its not certain

The most dominant feature of the face is the eye-ring, which is a Rockit thing - Wapit should have a whopping Super, though of course having a huge super wouldn't mean it was a Wapit.

The second outermost TF - if it has a biggish wedge of white would be a clincher for Wapit.. though this one is whitish, I have seen littoralis with as rather more. So I'd say Scandi-Rock not ruled out. The browness and lack of mantle streaking looks ok for Wapit though. Anyone else think these should never have been split!

Fabulous pics btw... the tail spread is superb...So wish there was a pic like tha of the Cornish Pipit

[Andrew Whitehouse]

To me it looks more like a Water Pipit than any Rock Pipit I've ever seen. The main concern I have against Wipit is the rather plain head (although it does show a reasonable super in pic.2) and fairly dull wing bar. That said I think it still looks more like Water than Rock Pipits. I can't really imagine any Rockit being so lacking in streaking on the underparts. The upperpart colouration also looks about right for Water Pipit. I wouldn't be certain from these pictures, but I reckon Water is much the best bet.

[Darrell Clegg]

I'll go with Andrew and say that this is a Water Pipit. The clean head and mantle, lack of streaks on the breast, as well as the very white outer tail feather and the splodge on the second outermost feather point towards Water Pipit to me.

How far away from the sea is the site? I know that Scandi Rock Pipits are more likely to turn up inland when on passage but ours are still on their wintering grounds down here.

Darrell

[Jane Turner]

I'm worried about the colour of the outer TF too.. Its hard to judge frm the pic.. but its looks less white than the straw...

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