It was generally another nice day to be out birding albeit there were a few showers worth avoiding! Being colder it felt rather unlikely that any new migrants would arrive and so it proved albeit a group of 4 Razorbills in Burrafirth were the first we've seen this year. A late afternoon visit to Haroldswick beach revealed the continued presence of the Scandinavian Rock Pipit.
Scandinavian Rock Pipit at Haroldswick
whilst its plumage characters including its well-marked supercilium, greyish tones to its head and pinkish suffusion to its throat would appear compelling for littoralis, the rather obvious moult contrast in its greater coverts courtesy of its visibly longer and fresher renewed inner greater covert's might lend support too... as Alstrom & Mild (2003) states the pre-breeding moult for littoralis on the Swedish west coast occasionally includes renewing a few inner greater coverts...
