Meadow Pipits are coming!

The forecast for this morning's session wasn't too good with fresh westerly winds and bright sunshine. The clear sky materialised but the wind remained quite light until we left at 10.30. 

We had another pretty stunning session with 110 new birds plus one Blackcap which had been ringed elsewhere-details when we get them. Again Blackcaps made up the bulk of the catch with 62 , next was Chiffchaff with 16. The usual range of other warblers were in single numbers but unfortunately we didn't catch a Lesser Whitethroat. However, this was amply compensated for by our SIXTH Grasshopper Warbler--unprecedented  numbers for us.

Meadow Pipits aren't spectacular birds but they are intriguing. They are a very common breeding bird throughout Europe right up to the Arctic Sea coast into Russia. Some birds do stay in the UK during winter, but the majority migrate south spending the winter mainly in southern Europe with vast numbers on the Iberian Peninsula. As far as ringing is concerned the next few weeks is essentially our annual chance to ring them as they pass through our area on their way south--over the last few days they have started moving--and we started catching them. One of the reasons I love catching this species is that they really present trainees with a challenge--as I hope the following pictures illustrate:-

Here is a typical example of a Meadow Pipit (mipit for short). There are several clues to it's age but I've labelled a fairly obvious one. The two feathers ( greater coverts) labelled 1 are buff edged and new adult type feathers just moulted in. The rest of these coverts are labelled 2 and have white edges typical of un-moulted juvenile feathers--so this is a juvenile bird.

The tricky issue about mipits is that their moult doesn't seem to follow a pattern with almost every individual having a different strategy:- here are two more from this morning--both juveniles:-

In this bird all the GC and MC feathers are white edged and juvenile, but this bird has started to moult its tertial feathers. Number one is white edged and juvenile but number 2 has broad buff edges and is an adult feather moulted in.

On this bird two tertials have been moulted but one is still juvenile--however, feather 1 is a greater covert that has been moulted into an adult type--but you can just see the white tip of a juvenile greater covert labeled 2.

OK I hear you crying ENOUGH !!

So here's a couple of other pictures:-

Here's a mipit tail showing all of the feathers as pointed--readers will know this is a typical juvenile feature.

Last; have a look at the foot:-

Readers who have been following a while may remember the foot pictures of Skylarks showing the long straight hind claw. Like Skylarks, Mipits spend a lot of time walking on short grassland and hey presto they also have very long straight hind claws.

Here endeth today's lesson...........