Highgate Common

17 April, 2015

It's a good time of year to visit Highgate Common because summer migrant birds are arriving by the day. No sooner had I parked the car then a cuckoo started to call, heralding the arrival of spring.  But it wasn't the cuckoo I had come for. Spring brings a heathland bird that can go unnoticed by the thousands of dog walkers that the common attracts. O yes, the cuckoo had been heard by most the walkers that morning as each one told me when walking past, seeing I had my binoculars and camera, with large lens, at the ready. But what of this mysterious bird that to the untrained eye, and ear, can miss? Even as one man walking his dog was telling about the cuckoo he had heard that morning this unobtrusive bird was singing only yards away.  Even experienced ornithologists find it difficult at times to identify this bird, at certain times of the year, from its close cousin the meadow pipit. Highgate common is a lowland heath, and that's one of the giveaways as this bird specialises in breeding in this habitat with its heather and small trees. A meadow pipit, despite the name, wouldn't be singing its head of this time of the year on a lowland heath in the Midlands.  One other big factor that gives its identity away, as well as subtle plumage characteristics, is the bird's display and song. So what is the bird in question? A tree pipit.

Tree Pipit, Highgate Common

As can be seen from the above photo, the tree pipit is a nondescript bird with brown and olive plumage, the reason why it goes missed by the general public. But listen out for its song and, its most captivating feature, the display flight! When you get to know some of its secrets and 'clocked' it, it is never forgotten.