[sooseee]

Keep thinking I've sorted out the difference! Confused by someone who told me meadow pipits had orangey legs, then checked and a field guide said tree pipts had pinkish legs and meadows were brown.So have been watching (on gorsey heath land with small shrubby trees) what I thought were meadow pipits soaring with a 'sree, sree sree' sort of noise, then with song increasing in tempo, a downward rapid , almost 'dive bomb' flight to the ground.Very confused!

[Mike Johnston]

Wouldn't rely too much on leg colour - both pinkish. Song flight can be a good indicator. Tree often dangles legs toward the end of its descent, Meadow doesn't. Tree most often lands in a tree at the end, Meadow usually on the ground or a low fence, post, bush, etc. Not failsafe but can help.

[Andrew Rowlands]

That song sounds good for Tree Pipit, sooseee - you ought to go back and spend more time studying them, it'll payoff in the long term

Cheers,

Andy.

[London Birder]

I'd recommend listening to recordings of Tree v Meadow song sooseee ..

[sooseee]

Thanks, Mike, Andrew and Des.All great advice-first to try is listening to song recording will check resources here and then British Museum sound archive.Sue

[dan pointon]

Hi SooSeee,

Here's links to the calls of both Meadow and Tree Pipits, hope they clinch the ID for you.

Tree Pipit: http://www.scricciolo.com/eurosongs/....trivialis.wav

Meadow Pipit: http://www.scricciolo.com/eurosongs/....pratensis.wav

I find song most useful with singing pipits, though if you just search through BF, you'll find numerous threads regarding this topic which should give you more than enough info.

Cheers