Anthus spinoletta
May 5, 2001: Aberlady Bay Local Nature Reserve, East Lothian, Scotland
While up at Gullane Point, I viewed a bird which has given me quite a bit of entertainment. I spotted this bird near the rocks by the grass up above the point, and it flitted over to perch about halfway up one of the large rock formations. The bird was just about at my eye-level, and sat there quite long enough for me to get a good, long look. It even turned around, so I could see the back and tail. When I was actually looking at the bird, I had NO IDEA what I was seeing – not even able to put a category on it. The first thing I noticed was the beautiful pink breast. Quite richly colored – not a bright pink, but a beautiful rose pink, deep and rich. No obvious streaking on the breast, either. The head was grey, and the bird had a delicate, dark bill, like that of a dunnock (thin, pointy, medium length). The image I still carry in my mind of the bird is a full frontal view of that pink breast, slightly puffed up, with the little face peeping at me. When the bird turned around, I could see that the head was definitely gray, and the back was brown. The difference in the two colors was quite distinctive – not gray blending into brown, but a gray head and brown back. The tail appeared black and white to me – white stripes down a dark tail. The wingtips also appeared black/dark. The stance was upright, and the leg appeared reddish, but at the time I thought that could have been caused by the lighting. (It was bright and sunny). This turned out to be a bit of a controversial bird – when I told some of the local folks about it, the consensus was that it would be a very unlikely bird to see here. Usually, that would make me question the ID, but I spent so much time with this bird, and took such detailed notes, that I’m satisfied that I identified it correctly, and it was somewhat out of its normal range.
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