Richards Pipit

Shortly after leaving work at 14.00hrs on 14^th October 2003, I received a textmessage from John Metcalfe (JM) stating that a female Greater Scaup was present at Parsonage Reservoir. Having recently acquired a digital camera, I decided to call in briefly and attempt to photograph the bird.

Upon arrival, it was apparent that the Scaup was present on the upper reservoir, so I climbed over the gate and settled on the causeway banking at the SW corner.

Thirty minutes later (longer than anticipated) and some 60 shots later, I had begun to pack the camera away to head elsewhere, when I heard a loud ‘Sparrow-like’ call, which appeared to emanate from a field on the northern side of the upper reservoir, some 80+mtrs away. I looked up towards the field in question, and with the naked eye, immediately noticed a Passerine fly strongly up from the field centre, again giving a loud 'Sparrow-like' call. I hurriedly raised my Binoculars onto the bird.

Although initially flying towards me, the Passerine quickly assumed a flight direction roughly parallel with the northern side of the upper reservoir at c40mtrs range and continued to utter a ‘Sparrow-like’ call at c5 second intervals. The bird was clearly larger than a Meadow Pipit, being roughly Skylark sized. The flight action was rather powerful, with a fairly rapid series of wing-beats, followed by an undulation as the wings closed. I was able to take in that it was long tailed, the tail appearing only slightly shorter than the length of the body, giving the bird a rather long, fairly slim flight profile. It almost instantly became apparent to me that the Passerine was a ‘large’ Pipit, and on the sole basis of the call previously described, I rather loudly announced to myself “******* Richards Pipit!!”

The only plumage features that could be ascertained during this view were of brown upper-parts, and as the bird turned side-on against the fairly brisk east wind, the under-parts could be seen as pale, the belly contrasting with obvious streaking on the breast. As it gave up the battle of flying into the near head-on wind, the Richards Pipit began to fly in a northerly direction, towards the summit of a hill that overlooks Upper Parsonage, and to my relief, although distant, the bird appeared to land on the near side of the summit. The total duration of this flight view was c1min.

I immediately made several calls on my mobile inc. to Tony Disley (ASD) who was between Lytham and Preston and JM who was now at Pilling. Both said they were on their way, so I decided to leave the area where the bird had apparently landed, undisturbed until ASD and JM arrived.

An agonizing hour passed before ASD finally arrived. Apart from a 5 minute gap whilst I drove round to beneath the area where the Pipit had appeared to land, I had been keeping the area in question monitored constantly throughout and had seen no Passerines fly. However, a thorough search of the area and fields beyond, by up to five observers until 18.30hrs revealed not a trace of the bird! At the time, I recall saying to JM that it bore all the hallmarks of a classic single-observer sighting!

Next day (Oct 15^th), I returned to Parsonage Res after work. The Scaup was still present, so I again began photographing it and was joined soon after by Mark Breaks (MkB). Whilst watching the Scaup, a Rock Pipit flew NE at 15.00hrs, and shortly afterwards, we decided to walk along the SE side of the lower reservoir.

By 15.20hrs, we had walked two-thirds of the way along this side of the res when, to my astonishment and for no apparent reason, the Richards Pipit suddenly flew up from a field close to the perimeter wall, calling once, before re-landing further up the field, just over a ridge, out of sight.

With the bird relocated and ‘pinned-down’ to a field, several phone calls were made and again a decision to leave the bird undisturbed until others birders arrived on the scene. After 25 minutes JM arrived. The reservoir had been John’s local patch for years and he had permission to walk the land in question, so we scaled the wall and walked up the field.

No sooner had we reached the ridge, the Richards Pipit flew, uttering the same ‘Sparrow-like’ call, three times, before landing in a field of shorter turf nearby. This flight view was JM’s first view of the bird and he commented on what an obviously ‘big’ large Pipit it was. We agreed.

The three of us hurriedly made our way to the next field, where brief, but good scope views were had of the Richards as it sat motionless, side-on, but with only the front half of the bird visible. During this view, a dark, well-streaked crown, obvious large pale supercillium, pale loral area, obvious Malar stripe, substantial bill and obvious breast streaking were all noted. But before MkB and Myself could bring the digiscoping equipment into play, the bird flew back towards the Upper Reservoir, again giving the same loud ‘Sparrow-like’ call a further three times.

Thinking that the bird had continued over the Upper Reservoir, back to perhaps the original field of the day before, we scrambled back onto the path alongside the lower res and headed back in that direction. Shortly before we reached the causeway, we inadvertently flushed the Richards, that had landed, unknown to us, on the actual path round the reservoir! The Pipit gave an excellent flight view at close range and gave the same ‘Sparrow-like’ call several times as it made its way back to the original field from which MkB and I had initially relocated it, again landing close to the perimeter wall.

For the next two hours, we were able to obtain several reasonably good scope views of the Richards on the ground, as it remained faithful to this field, though it often disappeared amongst the longer, rank grass for considerable periods. This settled behavior enabled Allen Holmes, Barry James and Dave Bickerton to successfully twitch it, and MkB to obtain the invaluable image accompanying this account.

The Richards Pipit was last seen at 17.15hrs, as it walked over the brow of the field. With several other birders assumed to be enroute to the site, we left the bird undisturbed. By 17.50hrs, it was apparent that the light was fading and with several of the Burnley contingent now present, we decided upon an organised walk of the field.

Upon reaching the brow of the field where the bird was last seen, it was obvious that the East wind was now blowing stronger than before, and directly in our faces, affecting our abilities to visually locate the Richards Pipit when it flew and called, which it duly did. No visual sightings were made during this attempt, but the bird was heard by all but one observer.

On the 16^th Oct, there was no visual sighting of the bird all day, despite a thorough search late afternoon of the favoured field of the 15^thOct and adjacent fields, though one observer, Glenn Hodkinson, was confident that he heard the bird call twice around mid-day.

In all, just six birders saw the bird. If I am honest, that was five more observers than I thought would have seen it after the events on the first day.

Description.

Size: A large Pipit. The Richards was clearly larger than Meadow Pipit. Although none were present for a direct size comparison, the bird was considered much closer to Skylark in size.

Jizz / Behavior: On the ground: When sat motionless with neck in, the body of the bird appeared plump (for a Pipit) and somewhat hunched, but when feeding appeared slimmer, yet obviously more substantial, long-legged and longer-tailed than Meadow Pipit. When feeding, the Richards would move through the rank grass, frequently pausing and ‘looking-around’ on long legs, in an upright manner, with the neck clearly extended and head + bill slightly angled upwards. When lost from view for some time, the Richards would suddenly appear, motionless, for between 10-20 seconds atop an obvious tuft/mound/shorter turf in the field, again looking around, neck extended, head + bill slightly angled upwards.

In flight: the action was rather powerful, with a fairly rapid series of wing-beats, followed by a lengthy, but not deep, undulation as the wings closed. The tail appeared only slightly shorter than the length of the body, giving the bird a rather long, fairly slim flight profile.

The bird never once appeared to give the impression of being short-tailed, either in flight or on the ground. The Richards was very vocal when it flew of it’s own accord or when flushed. I personally heard the bird call on more than 20 occasions. When flushed the bird would fly a considerable distance before re-landing. Due to the nature of the distance involved, I did not note the bird hovering before re-landing, therefore I cannot say whether it definitely did/did not do this. The Richards was very much a loner and did not associate with the 20+ Meadow Pipits that were in the area.

Head+ Neck: The Crown was brown, streaked black. The Nape was lightly streaked and slightly paler than the Crown. The Supercillium was broad and buff in colour, extending from a pale loral area, over and behind the eye, with a dark border to the upper edge. The Pipit showed a rather ‘open-faced’ expression, the Eye appearing rather large and isolated, with a pale orbital ring. A short, dark Moustachial stripe ran from the pale Loral area - below the eye. The ear-coverts contrasted with both the paler Supercillium and Sub-Moustachial stripe. An obvious, dark Malar stripe was present, culminating in a ‘splodge’ of dark feathering on the sides of the neck. The Throat was pale.

Breast/Flanks/underparts: The breast was obviously streaked black, over a buff-white ground colour, the streaking being strongest on the upper breast, becoming finer towards the lower breast. The flanks appeared as clean buff and the belly and remainder of underparts were white.

Upperparts: Brown with obvious dark streaking on the Mantle, and to a much lesser extent on the Scapulars. I did not see the rump/uppertail well.

Wings: The Median and Greater Coverts were dark centred, with white fringing to the edges of at least some of the feathers (For my own personal interest, I would have liked to scrutinize the median coverts closer, but the nature of the views/viewing conditions did not allow this. Unfortunately, to my eyes, the image accompanying the description shows this feather tract to be hidden by the scapulars, except for a single pale tip visible). The Tertials were dark centred, buff fringed, appearing slightly paler toward the tips.

Tail: The outer tail feathers were obviously white, but views were such that there was no chance of examining the exact pattern. The remainder of the tail feathers appeared brown.

Bare Parts: Bill: Stout and relatively blunt-ended. The Upper Mandible was dark. The Lower Mandible was mostly pale except for the tip, which was dark. Eye: Dark. Legs: Pale.

Call: A loud ‘Sparrow-like’ call, considered most similar to House Sparrow, which in an ‘open-field’ situation as with this record, instantly demanded attention upon hearing it. The ‘Sparrow-like’ quality remained absolutely constant in 20+ instances of hearing the bird call.

Age: Due to the pale edges visible on the Greater Coverts, Median Coverts and the pale fringes to the edges of the tertials, I consider the bird to be in 1stw plumage.

Accepted by the Lancashire Records Panel.