Widewater Lagoon, Shoreham-by-Sea. Classic Rock Pipit - it is olive-brown on top rather than the brown with quite bold streaking of a Meadow Pipit. Meadow Pipits have bright pink legs, not dull red, sometimes quite dark, like this one. Rock Pipits, as here, have a duller, dirty white underside. Meadow Pipits instead have a paler near white underside. Also the streaking on the underside is blurry and not sharply defined the way it is in Meadow Pipits.

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) (23/12/2007) Widewater Lagoon, Shoreham-by-Sea. Classic Rock Pipit - it is olive-brown on top rather than the brown with quite bold streaking of a Meadow Pipit. Meadow Pipits have bright pink legs, not dull red, sometimes quite dark, like this one. Rock Pipits, as here, have a duller, dirty white underside. Meadow Pipits instead have a paler near white underside. Also the streaking on the underside is blurry and not sharply defined the way it is in Meadow Pipits.

Shoreham Beach, near the fort - the sea wall. Meadow Pipits instead have a more strongly definited malar stripe (the bit that goes down from the beak either side of the neck - here you can see just a bit of blurry brown, not much of a stripe. It is evidently living in a crack in the wall here (its December so not breeding).

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) (23/12/2007) Shoreham Beach, near the fort - the sea wall. Meadow Pipits instead have a more strongly definited malar stripe (the bit that goes down from the beak either side of the neck - here you can see just a bit of blurry brown, not much of a stripe. It is evidently living in a crack in the wall here (its December so not breeding).

Shoreham Beach, near the fort - the sea wall. This one looks a bit more like a Meadow Pipit than the other specimen. But it nevertheless has darker legs, messier chest markings and the lack of a well-defined malar stripe, so must be a Rock Pipit. Its giss suggests it may be a Juvie in its first winter, so perhaps that is why it seems paler.

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) (23/12/2007) Shoreham Beach, near the fort - the sea wall. This one looks a bit more like a Meadow Pipit than the other specimen. But it nevertheless has darker legs, messier chest markings and the lack of a well-defined malar stripe, so must be a Rock Pipit. Its giss suggests it may be a Juvie in its first winter, so perhaps that is why it seems paler.

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) (23/12/2007) Shoreham Beach, near the fort - the sea wall. The same first winter specimen.

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) (23/12/2007) Shoreham Beach, near the fort - the sea wall. The same first winter specimen. It's now hopped down onto the sand.

Shoreham Beach, near the fort - the sea wall. The same first winter specimen. Finding insects among the washed up seaweed.

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) (23/12/2007) Shoreham Beach, near the fort - the sea wall. The same first winter specimen. Finding insects among the washed up seaweed.

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) (23/12/2007) Shoreham Beach, near the fort - the sea wall. The same first winter specimen.

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) (23/12/2007) Widewater Lagoon, Shoreham-by-Sea.

Shoreham Beach, near the fort on the shingle. Was very chuffed to spot this - was simply scanning the shingle and found it via the bins. So well camofluaged I wouldn't have noticed it otherwise!

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) (28/01/2006) Shoreham Beach, near the fort on the shingle. Was very chuffed to spot this - was simply scanning the shingle and found it via the bins. So well camofluaged I wouldn't have noticed it otherwise!

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) (28/01/2006) Shoreham Beach, near the fort on the shingle. Lots of insects amongst the seaweed that has washed ashore.

Shoreham Beach, near the fort on the shingle. Clearly showing the off white undercarriage with ill-defined streaking (Meadow Pipits have a pale undercarriage with well-defined streakiing).

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) (28/01/2006) Shoreham Beach, near the fort on the shingle. Clearly showing the off white undercarriage with ill-defined streaking (Meadow Pipits have a pale undercarriage with well-defined streakiing).

Rock Pipit (Anthus petrosus) (28/01/2006) Shoreham Beach, near the fort on the shingle.