THE LOGICALITY OF LITTORALIS

THE STATUS AND IDENTIFICATION OF SCANDINAVIAN ROCK PIPIT IN GREATER MANCHESTER

by Ian McKerchar

Above: Scandinavian Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus littoralis), Lynemouth, Northumberland, 6th March 2005 (Alan Gilbertson). The relatively distinctive breeding plumage of a littoralis Rock Pipit is obvious here and little more than a cursory glance should be enough to separate this particular individual from both British Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus petrosus) and Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta), but it is far from always that easy!

It is the intention of this article to inform observers of the status and identification of Scandinavian Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus littoralis) in Greater Manchester and will also cover the status and identification of British Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus petrosus) and Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta spinoletta). Over recent years, observers awareness of the presence and identification Scandinavian Rock Pipits has increased but misconceptions, identification pitfalls and inexperience has lead to misidentifications.

This article comprises of the following pages:

CLICK ON A PAGE TO GO DIRECTLY TO THAT INFORMATION

Page 1: Status and habitat of Rock and Water Pipit in Greater Manchester

Page 2: Identification of Rock Pipit (littoralis and petrosus) in non-breeding plumage

Page 3: Identification of Water Pipit (spinoletta) in non-breeding plumage

Page 4: Identification of Rock Pipit (littoralis and petrosus) in breeding plumage

Page 5: Identification of Water Pipit (spinoletta) in breeding plumage

Page 6: Summary, acknowledgements and references

STATUS

Scandinavian Rock Pipit (hereafter referred to as littoralis) breed in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway, wintering from south-western Sweden to Portugal, although the main wintering areas appear to be in Britain and the Netherlands to northern France. In the UK many regions usually devoid or with small numbers of Rock Pipit (petrosus) encounter an often large swelling during the winter months and many/most of these birds are undoubtedly littoralis, which has been backed up by ringing recoveries on occasions (see under British Rock Pipit below for further discussion).

In Greater Manchester there are only 8 accepted records of littoralis since 1992 (of 9 birds total) and not surprisingly all of these fall within the spring passage period when some birds are attaining their distinctive breeding plumage and are more readily identifiable from petrosus. All records of littoralis accepted by the Greater Manchester County Rarities Committee since 1992 are listed below and refer to single birds unless otherwise stated, the distinct increase in records from 1999 onwards is undoubtedly due to increased observer awareness of this sub-species.

Audenshaw Reservoirs, 31st March 1993

Audenshaw Reservoirs (2), 16th March 1999

Audenshaw Reservoirs, 13th March 2000

Audenshaw Reservoirs, 21st March 2002

Audenshaw Reservoirs, 13th March 2003

Audenshaw Reservoirs, 20th March 2005

Audenshaw Reservoirs, 9th April 2006

Blackstone Edge Reservoir, 29th March 2007

British Rock Pipit (hereafter referred to as petrosus) is a resident and short distance migrant around the coast of the UK, Ireland and north-west France, with apparent annual status in the county and 138 records since 1992, stark contrast to littoralis records! That Littoralis forms such a very small proportion of all Rock Pipit records in the county as a whole, is surely an underestimate when we consider that Scandinavian Rock Pipits undoubtedly make up the overwhelming bulk of all wintering and passage records from Cheshire and Lancashire, especially considering that their respective breeding populations are very small and wintering populations significantly higher. This being the case, their migration back to their breeding ground would include passage overland, a route that would undoubtedly over-fly Greater Manchester.

Of course the identification and separation of littoralis from petrosus in autumn/winter (not to mention many in spring!) is often virtually impossible and with this in mind it would be interesting to speculate on the true status of both littoralis and petrosus in the county. It is my opinion that at least most of our records are infact of littoralis and that it is infact petrosus which is rarer in the county. This is of course pure speculation however 'informed' I might like to think it is but considering that the records of Rock Pipit fall within such distinct periods (see chart 1 below), this is of course indicative of passage and since it is littoralis that is the most strongly migratory and also which winters in Britain in large numbers this would appear to be consistent with this opinion.

There is little we can do but continue to speculate upon the true sub-species identity of Rock Pipits that occur in the county during autumn or winter but during spring littoralis often attain a distinctive breeding plumage which can sometimes allow separation from petrosus and not surprisingly it is these individuals that have made up all their accepted records in the county.

The following charts analyse county data for all Rock Pipits

Above: Other than single records in January and July (the latter record of which is perhaps open to some conjecture), all Rock Pipit records fall within the spring and autumn passage periods with distinct peaks in March and October.

Above: The spring passage in March gathers momentum during the month to it's peak in the final week, numbers then drop very sharply indeed, to only a handful of records for April.

Above: The autumn passage is more evenly spaced throughout the month of October with again, noticeably much smaller numbers in the months either side of this.

Above: Littoralis records clearly form a tiny percentage of all Rock Pipit sightings in the county but is this a true reflection?

Water Pipit (hereafter referred to as spinoletta) used to be a regular feature of 'winter' birding in Greater Manchester with observers enjoying many birds that regularly utilised traditional sites such as Sale Water Park, Tyldesey Sewage Works and Hope Carr Nature Reserve often including birds that attained their impressive breeding plumage in late March and throughout April. Unfortunately (see chart 6 below) their status in the county took a rather remarkable turn in the early years of the millennium, the reasons for which are still not understood.  The race spinoletta of Water Pipit breeds in mountainous areas in southern and central Europe, wintering in western and southern Europe and of course encompassing the UK.

Above: Despite a small peak in March, records of Water Pipit are relatively evenly space throughout October through to April, with only one May record.

Above: Whilst maintaining a presence thought-out the 1990's, for some as yet unknown reason, after the millennium numbers of Water Pipit crashed dramatically and there have now been 4 blank years in the county for this species.

HABITAT

There is no reason why Rock Pipit may not be recorded from virtually any site in the county that can muster a body of water and at least some (preferably rocky or bare) shoreline and there is no doubt that many have been, and indeed are, overlooked. There is however a distinct bias towards the most favoured location, with Audenshaw Reservoirs managing an overwhelming percentage of all records, their large area of stone 'shoreline' is not only attractive to Rock Pipits but also enables them to be more easily found by it's regular keen observers, factors which lead to the recording of the counties highest ever recorded flock of 7 birds there on the 7th of October 2003. Nine sites in the county have recorded the species, with some varying degree of habitat, although all have the prerequisites already mentioned of a large area of water and at least some rocky or bare shoreline. Sale Water Park (1992), Castleshaw Reservoir (1994), Watergrove Reservoir (1998), Little Eees, Ashton-on-Mersey (2001) and Blackstone Edge Reservoir (2007) have all recorded Rock Pipit on one occasion, with sites managing more than one occurrence being represented on the chart below.

Above: The huge bias of Audenshaw Reservoirs is plain to see, but surely those county sites of similar habitat such as Heaton Park Reservoir, Ashworth Moor Reservoir, Watergrove Reservoir and Blackstone Edge Reservoir, go under recorded?

Three Rock Pipits enjoy Audenshaw' s prime habitat on 14th October 2006! (Rob Adderley)

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