Meadow Pipit

Went up onto the moorland today. It was colder, windier and duller than forecast, but it's a place that always lifts my spirits - perhaps because I can mostly identify the moorland species, many even just by their song, which is one of my poorer areas of bird ID generally. Although many of the birds up there are not migrants, they abandon the higher ground in winter. The grouse hold the fort, whilst the lapwing return early to check out the territory, followed by the curlew, skylark and meadow pipit. Today was my first sighting of the meadow pipit, but it won't be long before the heather is full of them.