ROCK PIPIT

The large, dark pipit which gets ignored around the rocky coasts of the UK, has a Scandinavian subspecies which regularly passes through the country in the spring and autumn. At least, that is the theory, as out of the spring plumage these littoralis birds can be difficult to separate from our resident petrosus birds. They can turn up at gravel pits and reservoirs or lakes with rocky or gravelly shores, in the spring. Larger and darker than Meadow Pipits, they have dark smudgy streaking on the breast and flanks, rather unstreaked backs, dark legs, dark bills and a harsher ‘feest’ call.