Tag: wagtail

December 28th – I’ve heard of this before, but never seen it. In the Three Spires precinct in Lichfield, as dusk fell, a barely-noticed commotion of bird fuss broke the gentle susurration of continued consumerism below. One single tree out of several, decorated in Christmas lights in a fashion that must have taken someone bloody ages, what must have been a hundred or more pied wagtails.

I’d heard they flock. These nippy, twitchy little birds live off bugs generally, and are a common sight in car parks and factory yards and other areas of open hardstanding where they can hunt unhindered, but usually in ones and twos.

I don’t know if they came for the berries, or just a party. Certainly, nothing was bothering them. A remarkable sight I was lucky indeed to see.

May 25th – I’ve found a little oasis I never realised existed, but more on my main blog later in the week. In the meantime, here’s a grey wagtail I watched for ages, fetching bugs and feeding it’s young in an outbuilding. At one stage, it was challenged by a robing for hunting rights.

An amazingly close experience I never thought I’d have.

October 30th – The morning commute was marked by the wildlife I encountered on the way. As I left home, a large male fox sauntered towards me in broad daylight, bold as brass, taking the air, before diverting over gardens. 

At Jockey Meadows, deer were over the back of the woods, but I had no time to investigate.

At Pleck, I was panhandled by the central Walsall swan family of mum and dad plus two. They always come over and noisily demand food. When they realise you haven’t got any, they lose interest and wander off. Aggressive  begging is a persistent problem these days.

Right in the heart of urban Pleck, a grey wagtail was an unexpected delight, bobbin around in the canal side scrub. It was a long zoom in terrible light but such a cute little bird.

While I watched the wagtail, a large rat ran along the bumper rail. He was a big fellow. I only just caught his derrière. He looked healthy, though, so the water must be clean… yes, it’s a terrible photo but it does show the breadth of local wildlife, I guess.

September 14th – The boating lake at Chasewater has been drained for cleaning, and the old water spread on the west heath, by the railway. Odd to see this pool empty, but the feral white geese and opportunist wagtails didn’t seem to mind too much.

I noted they had warning signs out to avoid the area where the old water was spread, like it was suddenly a health hazard; whereas when it was in the pond, we were invited to sail toy boats and paddle canoes in it…

Let’s hope it’s kept a bit cleaner in future.

June 29th – Out for an evening spin after a traumatic day, I headed to Chasewater. I was pleased to finally capture a grainy, long-range shot of one of the grey wagtails inhabiting the rushes and back gardens near Anchor Bridge; I’ve seen them numerous times this year, but never got a pic. I’ve never seen them here before. The rabbits are still breeding like, well, rabbits at the Lichfield Road bridge, and near Newton, overlooking the A5, the canal side meadow had been mown for hay, which was drying, gently in the warm summer air.

The perfect antidote to a stressful day.

March 23rd – I went back to Chasewater to investigate the overflow situation, and because my conscience was burning me badly. I needed to feed those poor swans. The snow still fell, and the wind was evil. This was the worst snowfall I’d seen since the early 1980s, yet I was surprised at the diversity of the a avian population I encountered. Crows, waterfowl, gulls. Pied wagtails hunted what I presume were barely visible bugs over the overflow spillway. They mingled with a small, brown sparrow-like bird I didn’t recognise. Consulting with birders online later, these cute little brown jobs with comical flight and similar feeding behaviour to the wagtails turned out to be meadow pipits, probably brought down by the snow during migration. I was fascinated by the way they clung to the spillway walls.

I needn’t have fretted about the swans, as their mum was there. The Swan Lady and her husband are legendary at Chasewater, and they feed and tend the swans, taking note of absentees and arrivals. The incongruous and greedy flock gathered round their guardians with eager and expectant joy, and much honking. Bless.

April 6th – Back on the canal at Rushall Junction, going up the Rushall Extension through Park Hall, the wildlife seems to be about again. I think this is my first heron photo this year, and he was a bit jumpy, to be frank. There don’t seem to be many of these about on the canals right now. The other little chap is the deceptively named Grey Wagtail, who seemed to be engaged in courting behaviour. A charming little bird, he bobbed about for a while utterly unconcerned by the cyclist looking on, fascinated.