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Olive-backed Pipit by Alain Boeckx |
October has turned out to be the month of the three-letter birds. After my wonderful YBW discovery at the start of the month, an Olive-backed Pipit decided to spend 11 days in a nature reserve at the coast. This is a scarce but regular autumn migrant in Belgium with 20 accepted records until the end of 2019. They do not usually stay for long, however, so I have never been able to see one. I first tried after work with just one hour of daylight remaining on day four of its stay but couldn't locate it, a first-winter male Ring Ouzel being my only consolation. Two days later, I returned to find a cluster of birders staring at a bush and, after around ten minutes, got my first, frustrating view of its back as it crept mouse-like through the vegetation. I soon got a good view of its head, though, which was much creamier than I expected and very different from our regular Tree Pipits, with the bird eventually popping out of the long grass into full view. Just at that moment, some other birders who were positioned further along the path came rushing along to get a better view and flushed it so I wasn't able to get any pictures. Another Brussels birder kindly let me use his instead. Merci, Alain!
Olive-backed Pipit is only my second lifer this year and it has been a long, long wait since the
Dusky Thrush way back in January.
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Olive-backed Pipit by Alain Boeckx |
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Olive-backed Pipit by Alain Boeckx |
