Not sure if the species is declining as a whole but concerning those on the Wirral at Parkgate etc, many may be being mis-identified, Water Pipits are certainly present but Cheshire recieve few descriptions for them (they are a county rarity there too) and Scando Rock Pipits are present aswell and certainly seem to get called Water Pipits quite regularly.
Cracking article Ian, really sorted out some of the nitty gritty between these species and cleared things up for me. Thanks for putting in the time and helping us all out.
Interesting about the abscence of water pipit in GM for the last few years. Nationwide there seem to me to be less wintering here these days but certain places e.g. Parkgate and Heswall on the wirral always produce a few or more in the winter. Is it known if the species as a whole is declining?
The part of the day I didn't spend at Pennington back then, I spent at Tyldesley SW instead
I used to love Tyldesley and saw some great birds there, unfortunately nowadays it's completely overgrown (I had a good walk across there last year) which is a shame 'cos it's only around half a mile from where I live! I remember Frank Horrocks telling me and my dad about the place at one of the LOS meetings around 1980/81, we spent a couple of hours the next day searching the filter beds on the actual works there and couldnt understand why we hadn't seen any Green Sands, let alone Water Pipits (we were in the wrong place to those who don't know the site ). Frank soon put us right though and we found the magical settling beds the next week, which soon made me remember that as an 8 year old kid we used to run across the crusty tops of the beds there in the summer school holidays
nice article ian-i remember about 20 years ago me and browny finding plenty water pipits at tyldesly sewage works do you remember them?obviously you do by what is said in your articleit did used to be a great birding site
Whilst it is not, nor shall it be, my intention to inform users of this forum to new items on the website (that's what the 'what's new to this site' page is for ), just this once, due to the amount of work involved in the making of it, I would like to let you know of the new article I've just published, especially for those who wouldn't normally look and therefor don't know what they're missing
The article is fairly 'major' for the county and covers the status and identification of Scandinavian Rock Pipit and also covers British Rock and Water Pipit, it is quite 'in-depth; and runs to 6 pages long but includes over 40 superb photographs and covers pretty much as much as you'd ever need to know.
Anyway, it taken ages to put together so give it a once over if you can.
but concerning those on the Wirral at Parkgate etc, many may be being mis-identified, Water Pipits are certainly present but Cheshire recieve few descriptions for them (they are a county rarity there too) and Scando Rock Pipits are present aswell and certainly seem to get called Water Pipits quite regularly.
). Frank soon put us right though and we found the magical settling beds the next week, which soon made me remember that as an 8 year old kid we used to run across the crusty tops of the beds there in the summer school holidays 
), just this once, due to the amount of work involved in the making of it, I would like to let you know of the new article I've just published, especially for those who wouldn't normally look and therefor don't know what they're missing