The UK Water Pipit project is usually active between October when the birds first arrive in the UK, and April when they return to their high altitude breeding grounds and of the 50 or so individuals marked since 2018, there have been no confirmed reports away from the wintering grounds.
In the third week of July, Chris and I have been visiting the Picos de Europa, Spain for spectacular scenery, butterflies and birds. This is also a potential summering ground for our UK wintering Water Pipits. The Picos de Europa is a mountain range extending only 20km long, covering 646 square kilometres and forming part of the more extensive Cantabrian mountains in the north of Spain. The usual daytime temperatures here hover around the 21 degrees Celsius mark, however on only one of the seven days did the temperature fall below 25 degrees and it exceeded 35 degrees on two days. The grassland and mountain flowers were certainly showing the effects of the unusually high temperatures, due to the heatwave that was also affecting the UK at the time. Yet another example of changing conditions due to global warming.
The few records of birds seen in the Picos seem to be in April, possibly before the actual breeding grounds are reached. This paper from 2010 suggests that snow cover is usual for 6 to 7 months of the year at the breeding altitudes and one has to wonder whether this is still the case in 2022 with warmer temperatures decreasing the time when snow is present.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281668007_The_snow_in_the_Picos_de_Europa_Geomorphological_and_environmental_implications
Even without snow in July, much of the area is inaccessible, so 'Where to look for Water Pipits?' was the question.
We decided to try a couple of places that mirror our old and current winter ringing sites, Staines Moor, Surrey and Wind Ken Hill, Norfolk with features as follows: cattle and/or horses present, grassland of varying lengths and water flowing through soft mud, forming pools. Additionally, the site should be above the treeline.
http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/erlob/summarypdfs/22718571_anthus_spinoletta.pdf
The literature states that breeding may be between 615-3200 metres altitude, most commonly from 1400 - 2500 metres. Most water flows into rocky stream and river beds and with high temperatures the few, damp marshy areas were drying up but despite the challenges, we did manage to find Water Pipits at two sites.
Water Pipit, Puerto de San Glorio 23/07/2022
The first site was at the Picos heights, accessible by cable car from Fuente De. The line covers a 753m vertical drop from the second cable car station at a height of 1850m (6070ft), with the tallest mountain, Torre de Cerrado, reaching 2650m. The birds were in a broad, marshy depression close to the path away from the upper station, so at an altitude of approximately1870m. They were not close enough to photograph and soon departed as more and more tourists arrived.
First Water Pipit feeding area below Torre de Cerrado, 20/07/2022
Here Water Pipits share the habitat with Egyptian Vultures (above),
Alpine Choughs, Black Redstarts and Alpine Accentors.
Alpine Chough
Black Redstart carrying food
A rather precocious Alpine Accentor juvenile.
Access to this site required either a 4 to 5 hour walk to climb 700m, or nerves of steel
for the 5 minute trip each way.
The second site was on the mountain pass road of the Puerto de San Glorio, that rises to an elevation of 1609m. Here water arrives via a pipe and flows into a cattle trough, frequently spilling over to leave the surrounding grass verdant and the soil permanently wet. Here we watched a few birds, mixed with Meadow Pipit, feeding for a while. There were, of course, none of our darvics! Most were first year birds with just one adult in badly worn plumage.
There has been a colour ringing effort to study the Water Pipits of the Picos and, like our project, the aim there is to learn more about the seasonal movements of that individual population in addition to the breeding habits. Only by developing a better understanding of birds and their life habits can we hope to conserve and protect birds in our changing environment.
More Griffon Vultures were seen above the second Water Pipit site.
One solution to the question of discovering exactly where our Water Pipits go to breed is the use of geolocators, but we would need to guarantee re-traps of birds carrying the devices. We could consider funding a few geo-locators, but to get the data, it would be reliant on re-capturing the birds. The other option would be using Modus trackers, but there are no receivers at present near any of the potential breeding areas.
