Birdtrack while waiting for Pipits

With the reed bed emptying as our summer visitors leave we turn our attention to other habitats at this time of year.
Today we covered two coastal sites for Pipits.
18 Meadow Pipits were ringed at Mwnt

As always, a great site to record birds present for BTO Birdtrack as well as ringing especially on a warm, sunny morning. 3 migrant Wheatear were recorded...

Meanwhile at Patch, on the Teifi Estuary, the day started chilly and foggy. The target species were Rock Pipits. In the last week we had seen a couple with features suggestive of the Scandinavian race, littoralis.
Only three Rock Pipits were seen and two were caught and ringed.

On a closer look, this bird did have white tail tips which are one of the features of littoralis

but did not have any of the other features of a strong supercilium and generally paler appearance with clearer breast-streaking. It did have yellow at the base of the bill but then so did the bird that had dusky tail tips typical of our resident petrosus .
This is also a useful site to record birds in the estuary while waiting for birds to go into the traps. Fly overs included 7 Bar-tailed Godwit, several small flocks of migrating Woodpigeon and a flock of Collared Doves. The high tide roost of waders didn't include any rarities - just Dunlin and Ringed Plover.
Back to the Teifi Marsh tomorrow....