Watch the baby

There’s a Rock Pipit on the rocks. They occasionally go in the meadows here too, which is confusing, since the Meadow Pipits also go on the rocks.

Rock Pipit, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit

It’s a very wary adult, perched on the cliffs:

Here on Westray, Rock Pipits are known as Banks Spurros.

I can see the fledgeling too. It’s still got a soft gape to its beak, with remnants of the bright ‘feed me’ signal.

Then I see the other adult, food in its beak, ready to feed its child:

I’m focussing on it, thinking how great it would be to get a photograph of the adult feeding the juvenile, when it flies off. I turn around and it’s already fed the juvenile and both have flown.

Which just goes to show; always watch the baby.