Hiding in Plain Sight

Brad (and Jan) are still out wining and dining our editor staff at the Denver facility – tells you how important they are to us I.T. professionals. I can hold my own in the coding world, but my knuckles still have not recovered from the damaged inflicted during my first class in deconstructing a sentence under the iron rule of nuns wielding heavy wooden rulers (WHACK). They eventually wore me down and got the basics past my defenses and honestly, these past 17+ year here at Intrigued has helped, but I still prefer talking bits and bytes. In Brad’s absence, you are stuck with me again for today’s featured feathered friend.

I know, I know, a bit of a letdown from the more colorful specimens featured in my previous posts. We still need to give the species that overslept the day when Mother Nature was waving her paint brush.

Hit the jump to read more about this species that could easily be mistaken for a member of the Sparrow family.

There are two members of the Wagtails and Pipit family that can be found regionally in North America. Both of them fall in the Pipit category – one called the Sprague’s and you are looking at the other one, the American Pipit.

This Pipit has also been in my nemesis column for many years. I have hunted for these rather drab ground birds up and down the southern coasts and grasslands to absolute frustration. My only encounter up to this point was an accidental sighting that was not found until I was reviewing captures in the digital darkroom back in 2018 (link here). As noted in that post, I am not even sure where those shots were taken, which is a perfect example of one of our Intrigued Golden Rules – If it moves, shoot it (if it moves again, shoot it again). And so it was again back in December of 2022 – New Year’s Eve to be exact. I was in complete desperation sitting at 297 for my Average Year tally and looking for any means possible to push me over the 300 goal threshold (link here).

We were staying at a KOA on the east side of Austin, TX. Linda was busy pouring over the eBird sightings in the area and found a place just up the road called Walter E. Long Lake that had a sighting for the American Pipit. There was a $10 entry fee, but at this point my IpS (investment per species) calculations were secondary to breaking 300, but I wasn’t optimistic based on my previous attempts – nuns did teach me that IpS calcs error out when you divide by ZERO. Grabbed The Beast, paid the fee and took to the hunt.

For some reason I was still under the impression I was looking for a Robin sized bird rummaging through the open grass even though I had already debunked that relationship in the first encounter. Okay, so maybe I can be a stubborn learner (put that ruler down!). Pipits are roughly half the size of Robins – for reference, Robins fall in the 8-11 inch range with a 12 to 16 inch wingspan where the Pipit comes in the 5.5 to 7 inch range sporting only a 10.5 or so wingspan. They are ground foragers so I was looking in the right area, I just couldn’t find them! Frustrations were growing and we were burning through daylight. See movement, fight like crazy to get a clear shot through the grass and leaves, check the LCD – another damn Sparrow – AAAARRGGGH!!

Was about ready to call it when the Merlin app announced a hit. Optimistically increased the scrutiny around me – more Sparrows. Then Linda gets a hit on her phone – bounce over there, more Sparrows. This cycles like 6 more times until we eventually triangulate to a small flock of Chipping Sparrows tossing leaves near a tree. One by one I pick off each specimen until I notice one without a rufous cap and has a thinner two-toned bill. Confirmed the streaking on the buff colored breast and white eye-ring, ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! Probably there all along, hiding in plain sight. With the visual clear in my head now, Linda and I came back the next day and made the American Pipit the first tin of the 2023 Average Year (link here). Here’s the funny thing, I’ve taken the American Pipit off my nemesis list as I can’t stop seeing it now. Feels like it is everywhere we bird now in the south, that previous scotoma has been removed.

How about a little more background on this species before I get to some brags..oh, did I mention there are brags coming, ah, sorry, there are brags coming hehehe. The name American Pipit is a tad over-possessive as it is also found in Asia. Over there they call it the Buff-Bellied Pipit. I was not able to find a good explanation for the American namesake, however, I did learn that it was once lumped in with the Water Pipits for our European readers. From a US perspective, they can be found in the southern border states during their non-breeding season before they head up to the higher elevations and tundras/alpine slopes in Asia and upper North America.

The Pipit portion of their name comes from their “Pi Pit” sounding calls more frequently heard in flight. These in-flight calls is probably most of what the Merlin app was picking up during our hunt. They are walkers as opposed to hoppers and have a habit of flicking/bobbing their tails while flashing their outer white feathers. As Sam alluded to in her post Cullinan Resurgence (link here), this flashing is likely a means to rustle up some dinner.

Pipits possess an interesting characteristic referred to as a Hallux. This is a long hind toe with a sharp talon on it. You can get a fairly good look at it in the second thru fourth images above. It is theorized that this feature allows them to maintain balance on unstable ground like the alpine slopes. Hmmm, thinking this might be a new addition to the Intrigued trail shoes line to go along with the Turnstone line mentioned in my last post! Lastly, one really good place to find Pipits is in the fields at large sports complexes. Again, likely to be heard long before they are seen.

Okay, let’s close this post out with some quick brags. Ruger has been tearing up the performance circuit as of late. Seems like the “puppy fog” has cleared and everything is starting to click. He has always had the energy, it was just …hmmm.. let’s go with more tsunami and less focused. Linda has been really training hard with him in the agility ring and you could see the difference in the recent competitions. Here he is with his new Novice Jumpers title and his legs in the other events.

That would be his “Yeah, I rock look”. Where we do take off the speed demon throttle is the FastCat competition, which is why we were up at Chain O’ Lake last weekend. Basically a 100 yard dash for dogs. Although it was a hot one, he posted an 18.94mph and an 18.77mph which at the time puts him in the 11th spot for all total Poodles (we are awaiting the latest official standings). This is what an exhausted speed demon Ruger looks like!

Just chilling and cooling down the feet ha.

Will leave it there for today’s post. Time to get some heat conditioning in on the trails and then get back to work on the Halloween props. Note, I am beginning to wonder if my Halloween addiction is simply a byproduct resulting from constant nightmares of angry NUNS WITH RULERS. Take care, pleasant dreams.