Scandinavian Rock Pipits

 Littoralis types on the old patch in early Spring

The Scandinavian rock pipit is a subspecies that I have been very interested by for many years now. Each year, mainly in spring I spend time searching for these colourful pipits by the coast, mainly the east and south eastern coasts of Ireland. Each year I tend to come across a few. While patching a tidal outlet in Wicklow for my years with my father we found that there were quite a few wintering rock pipit there. We had suspected they were most likely Scandinavian birds that arrive back around mid September for the winter and then depart again in mid March. By mid March these birds are quite striking. Showing pink hues to the head, nape, mantle and upper breast areas. Often resembeling a summer plumaged water pipit at times. After taking note of these wintering birds for several years, we began to build up some photographic documentation. In winter the majority of these birds appear identical to the nominate breeding race that is petrosus. Though some birds can appear very pale and white like that of a water pipit which I will show below. Each March I manage to see at least four or five littoralis type birds here before they depart a little later into the spring. It would be great if these birds remained into late March/early April as they would be very much in summer plumage and resembling a summer water pipit in plumage.

This subspecies breeds in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. Wintering from south western Sweden to Portugal, though the main wintering numbers appear to be in the UK, Northern France and the Netherlands. Therefore it would make perfect sense for them to be wintering in Ireland also.

(Reference: Manchesterbirding.com)

Putative littoralis, Broad lough, 12 March 2021

This bird is beginning to show some summer tones on the face and breast. The ear-coverts are turning to a pinkish tone which is a good feature of littoralis, especially in early spring as they appear to moult before the Irish breeding race of petrosus. In winter these littoralis types are basically inseparable from petrosus, though I suspect some are much paler and whiter than many petrosus in winter. 

Putative littoralis, Broad lough, 12 March 2021

Putative littoralis, Broad lough, 12 March 2021

Littoralis type rock pipit, Broad lough, Wicklow, 12th March 2016

This bird is almost identical to the bird I photographed this year at the exact same location. This bird also showed some pinkish summer tones on the face and upper breast. Finding a ringed bird would be a very helpful way to prove that some of these rock pipits are one hundred per cent birds from Scandinavia. 

Wintering rock pipit, presumed littoralis, Broad lough, Wicklow, December 2016

Wintering rock pipit, presumed littoralis, Broad lough, Wicklow, December 2016

Even though winter littoralis are impossible to separate from the common race of petrosus, when a large number of rock pipit gather on a coastal saltmarsh they are quite likely to be littoralis type birds. Let's hope we find a ringed bird here some day, until then I will further my studies on these birds each year. I hope to make some more trips to Broad lough and see how much summer tones the birds get before departing to breed. A ringing season of these Broad lough birds would be a nice way to track these birds movements each year, do they go back to Scandinavia to breed? This is just the start of some more work I hope to write about this subspecies in Ireland.

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