My first ever experience of thermal imager in the field for a Richard's Pipit

This Richard's Pipit had been around for a few days but I'd not had a chance to come look for it.  AT 3pm I arrived at the meadow known as Schäferiängarna at Ottenby headland.  There were a handful of people looking for it but no confirmed sightings since the morning.

I zigzagged the meadow chatting with several birders not knowing the best place to look for it in what is a large grassy and marshy area.  Eventually, it flew out of cover with some Skylarks and called.  I could see by the size it was a candidate but when it called I was certain of the ID, so I waved to other birders to come my way.  We tried relocating for another 15 minutes or so and I could see they had doubts, but then one of them flushed it.

It would fly and land in cover, running or walking most of the time. 


That's when someone produced a thermal imager.  It was very hard to pick up and we had a few false positives before finally locating it and allowing  me to grab this photo.  Everybody was happy.  Not least, me.   We left it to forage in the grass.







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