Like a bolt out of the blue. Nobody saw it coming. A first for Northamptonshire. Today, 19th October, delivered a landmark event in the discovery by Tyler Atkinson of an American Pipit at Clifford Hill GP – the first American passerine ever to be recorded in the county.
Loosely associating with Meadow Pipits, it was initially found in the early part of the morning on the shoreline in the south-east corner of the Main Barrage Lake. Not long after its discovery it kept a low profile, remaining out of view, and was not seen again until midday, when it moved up onto the flat grassy area above the shore. It was then seen intermittently throughout the afternoon before flying off south-west over Hardingstone Dyke around 17.30.
Its presence throughout the day allowed many birders – some from beyond Northants – to catch up with it.
Until the end of 2025, there had been 72 records of American Pipit in the UK, all of which have been in coastal counties, apart from one memorable crowd-puller at Farmoor Reservoir, Oxfordshire in October 2007 and another at Queen Mother Reservoir, Berkshire in December 2012.
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