My! Haven't you grown!

I found a pipit nest in a tussock of purple moor grass at the far end of the reserve on 10 May, with 4 eggs in it. Three days later a chick was just emerging... Now, the nestlings are putting on feathers a quite a rate.

I probably won't be able to look again though - much more feathered than this and you risk unsettling nestlings enough to make them leave the nest early. This one was still fairly imobile, and flopped back amongst it's siblings.

I don't know whether it's a tree pipit or a meadow pipit. They both nest on the ground, but tree pipit is on the 'citation' that made Popehouse Moor a site of special scientific interest (not that it's particularly rare though).

My book says you can't tell meadow and tree pipit apart at this time of year apart from the song, and that's beyond me at the moment. I've only see the adult once anyway, at that was a blur as she flew up almost from under my feet. That's how I found the nest.