After a wet day in Cornwall yesterday working, I was eager to get back up to the top fields on the patch and see if I could improve on my previouslu frustrating views of the Dix Pipit from Monday and more importantly, see if it was still there! I spent a good hour flogging around with no joy, but decided to give its favourite area one last try and, then as if by magic, it appeared! It was still being highly elusive other than flight views, but it finally settled in an area in slightly shorter grass where I managed to get the very slightly improved digiscope shot, before it went back into the thicker vegetation!
At one point, the bird seemed to utter an odd single note call and at times did not appear obviously big, which worried me for a while. The bird actually responded to both (the very similar to my ear) Blyth's and Richard's Pipit standard calls on my phone, by actually flying out of the long grass and calling once, but it never responded to the "chup" call of Blyth's.
When I finally saw it on the deck, I knew it wouldn't be out in the open for long, so I quickly got a few more record shots. The photos appear to show pro Dix Pipit features with a stout bill, fairly thick upper breast streaking and pointed triangular coverts. I waited a couple more hours to see the bird in flight again and it often hovered above the grass before landing and the tail seemed pretty long. So, I put the earlier size worry and call concerns down to size illusion in the early light and the odd call to the strong winds.
Still keen to see it better, but the bird is so elusive and the weather is not helping!
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