Buff-Bellied Pipit and Siberian Chiffchaff in the North West

It's always nice to see a few good birds when you're out birding, especially when they are so close to home. With that in mind I headed over to Burton Marsh in Cheshire with Andy Pryce to have a look at the Buff-bellied Pipit that has been in the area for a couple of weeks.

I have many friends who have tried for this bird several times without success so it was a real bonus to arrive at the site to find it showing well to the small crowd that had assembled.

The Buff-bellied Pipit acted impecibly during our stay, performing very well to gathering birders. This bird should be wintering in the southern USA and Central America not on a marsh in Cheshire!

Isn't birding great, you never know what will turn up next. If you didn't know about this bird and want to go and see it, head to the village of Burton in Cheshire and find Station Road, follow Station Road down through the village and on towards the coast and marsh.

The bird has been on and around the tidal debris near to the gates and footpath associating with Meadow Pipits, also Stonechats and unusually for this time of year, a Wheatear. An added bonus was a cracking Siberian Chiffchaff, which, like the pipit has chosen to winter on the marsh.

There are quite a few Siberian Chiffchaffs wintering around the UK at the moment, in fact I was lucky enough to see 2 last month at Broadsands in Devon whilst taking in the fabulous Cirl Buntings. Siberian Chiffchaffs have a lovely pale grey wash to them, as well as other features... they are little gems... in the 80's and 90's we would refer to them as 'Tristis' Chiffchaff, after the latin name, Sibe Chiffchaff is a little more modern but sounds fine to me.

Happy Birding.