Wagtails

[johnalison]

My newspaper told me the other day that wagtails are in serious decline. No-one seems to have told the birds at Titchmarsh, where there are invariably some pied wagtails around. Yesterday there were about a dozen around the pond area as well as some yellowish ones. Does anyone know if they were yellow wagtails or grey ones, as they look a bit similar in books? They didn't seem as yellow as the yellow wagtails I have seen at the height of summer on the Continent.

 

[Gin]

If they have yellow flanks/underparts and grey wings when folded then they are grey wagtails; yellow wagtails have no grey and are predominantly yellow on flanks/underside with green/yellowish upperparts

 

[swatchways]

One evening we thought it was raining, and actually it was an entire flock hopping about the roof! One hitched a ride for some time at one point too, on the pushpit!

 

[DanTribe]

One evening we thought it was raining, and actually it was an entire flock hopping about the roof! One hitched a ride for some time at one point too, on the pushpit!

For such small birds they do make a racket. Our boat is visited by a group every dawn. We reckon they must stamp about to wake us up.

 

[johnalison]

If they have yellow flanks/underparts and grey wings when folded then they are grey wagtails; yellow wagtails have no grey and are predominantly yellow on flanks/underside with green/yellowish upperparts

Thanks. The difficulty, for me, is distinguishing between grey and murky brown, which is easy enough in male summer plumage but wasn't so easy fifteen yards away against the sun. I think they were probably yellow, more likely to be found in a flock.

 

[moonshine]

Wagtails have nasty habit in FYH, they roost/nest in the end of your stack pack. 2012/13 had to clean up after live aboards, this avoided them

A

 

[Laurie]

Flock of yellowwagtails in Bradwell marina the other weekend...................also a peregrine above some nearby marshes......

 

[Leighb]

Some years ago a pied wagtail decided that inside our RHOD was a good roosting spot. Since I had some fine mesh net stretched over the cockpit to keep out the swallows who had previously been overnight occupants, I could not see how it got in.

I let it out a few times when we got out to the boat, but then, sadly, I found it dead on the floorboards when we had been away for a few weeks.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Shy birds, yet we had one at work that would take crumbs off an outstretched palm... Really pretty little birds.