On my walk ... the grey wagtail

 

When I started taking an interest in natural history nearly fifty years ago, like many beginners, my focus was almost exclusively on birds and, also like many beginners, I made lots of mistakes! I clearly remember my first encounter with this species and recording in my note book I that had seen my first yellow wagtail. Well, in my defence it was a wagtail, it was yellow and it was new to me. I had made one of the most fundamental errors in bird watching, taking notice of the 'English' name. This may be a 'yellow' wagtail as its dominant colour suggests but equally dominant is its grey back and darker grey wings which make this a grey wagtail; the yellow wagtail is, yes, much yellower.  

Also back then in 1970's Hampshire there was hardly a bridge on the River Test or Itchen that was not home to the grey wagtail. They were not an uncommon sight back then but slowly, over the years, they have almost disappeared from much of those rivers and, more recently when we lived in Dorset, I rarely saw them on the chalk rivers there, the Stour and the Frome.

It was, therefore, a real treat to discover grey wagtails on the River Sid, not many of them but a couple on the lower reaches that can be regularly seen. As the river bubbles over rocks in its path so the water is aerated which makes it good for insects and their larvae on which the grey wagtail depends for food. 

The grey wagtail is an active bird, always on the move hunting for its next snack, wagging its tail as it patrols the rocks and banks of the river and I have always found it difficult to get a reasonable photograph of one until I found this one taking a well earned rest on a stone in the middle of the river. It stayed for quite a while and posed nicely for me as I snapped away, I take snaps, I am NOT a nature photographer, but I think it would be relatively pleased with my efforts ... I hope so anyway. 

It is sad that I have to start most bird species reviews by saying that it is not as common as it once was but that is just the way things are as bird populations in general continue to decline despite best efforts of conservation organisations to stop the rot. The grey wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) is yet another species that falls into the category of 'declining' having not so long ago been a familiar sight along the Dorset rivers and streams but are now seldom seen. Being an insect feeder the grey wagtail is associated with rivers, often by bridges or where there are stony outcrops above the water level, where they can wait and watch ready to fly out and catch any insect they espy.

One of the first things you notice about the grey wagtail is that it is yellow! Many people think that they are, in fact, yellow wagtails, but the yellow wagtail is much more yellow than the grey which is so named because it flanks and front are grey.  The two species are quite different in colouration and can easily be told apart, especially when you consider that they frequent very different habitats. The grey wagtail has the long tail that bobs up and down (or 'wags') like other members of the family and also shares the short 'quip' alarm sound. The grey wagtail is a resident breeding species in Dorset and despite being less common there are reports from most weeks of the year outside of gap from week week 22 to week 32, that is from early June to mid-August. I personally think that this reflects the decline in the Dorset breeding population and now the grey wagtail is more likely to be seen on migration or as a winter visitor. It is also a fact that the inland river breeding sites for grey wagtail are not watched in the same way as coastal locations where migrants are more likely to be spotted.

There are records from forty nine locations in Dorset but only ten or so of these are the sort of habitat where one would expect to find breeding grey wagtails, the remaining sites are coastal where one would expect to find wintering or migratory birds.

I am not sure there is a guaranteed way to see grey wagtail for your Dorset list now other than perhaps a trip down to Lyme Regis to the river Lym where I believe they still can be seen regularly.