Two's company

A beautiful sunny, still & crisp day merited an afternoon stroll around the Lockwood with my Mum. Seems that PW had exactly the same idea, as he arrived a little later, also with female company (only it wasn't his Mum but wife Janet).
After watching up to 3 distant falcons flying around a church spire in the direction of Stokey (I believe the one where MJP has been observing much Peregrine activity of late), and just before greeting the others, I'd picked up on a couple of pipits feeding along the SE concrete edge. I was pretty sure they were Rock Pipits on account of their 'jizz'; larger & duller than Meadow pipits with rather greyish upperparts and dull geyish leg colour. I was pleased Paul had brought his 'scope to get a better view and, more importantly a second opinion on their ID. He confirmed my suspicions that they were of the Scandinavean race 'littoralis' on account of the rather pale (streaked) breast with slight pinky wash. This last feature together with lack of prominent eye stripe to me ruled out Water pipit (NB this is NOT meant to be a fully blown, scientific description!)...In any case they were another 'long overdue' patch addition for me, and new for this year's list.
Also seen were a handful of Meadow pipits, female Goosander, 6 Shelduck, c20 Teal and a lone Peregrine high overhead.
LB