I was walking along Moss Lane, St Helens this morning, hoping to catch up with
a flock of feral barnacle geese that had been reported on fields near
Liverpool St Helens rugby ground. I was halfway along a section of the lane
that has a high hedge on either side when suddenly I heard and then saw a
yellow wagtail fly over and immediately disappear behind the hedge as it
headed west.
I was intrigued because I knew that this was a late date for me to see yellow
wagtail, especially in the local area where I only had two previous records
for (early) September.
It only took me seconds to get back to a gap in the hedge where I could
see the fields, but even so the bird had long since disappeared. It hadn't been
particularly high though, and it didn't look like it was just passing through, so I guessed that it might have headed for one of
the many horse paddocks in the area.
I searched each horse paddock in turn without joy, until finally I heard the
bird call again and there it was, in the very last paddock with about 10 each
of meadow pipits and pied wagtails. I was immediately struck by how grey it
was!
I couldn't see any yellow on the bird, except perhaps the fringes of the tertials and primaries which looked a little yellowish. The bird's underparts including the undertail coverts were very pale grey.
As soon as I saw it on the ground I thought that it might be eastern yellow wagtail
which is considered a separate species these days, but my heart sank a little because I was also aware that
without a sound recording and/or DNA it would never progress much further than a
possible.
I did hear the bird call a couple of times, but I had no opportunity to record it and I'm not even sure that my phone would have picked it up in any case. The clearest call was when I first heard it flying over when it just sounded like a very clear and crisp yellow wagtail call. It certainly didn't stand out to me as anything unusual, but I wouldn't necessarily take that as a negative or otherwise for eastern yellow wagtail, because it's a species that I'm not familiar with and I'm generally not great at distinguishing subtleties in call.
However, having distributed the photos to various people asking for advice and comment, almost everybody including a current member of BBRC seem to think that it has good potential for eastern yellow wagtail, though one person did say that in his opinion it is most likely flava (blue-headed). Unfortunately as expected all comments have the caveat that a sound recording and/or DNA
is required to confirm the identification.
So as expected I'll never know for sure, but we are in the middle of a run of east / north
easterly winds which have been with us for at least the past three or four days, so given this fact and the relatively late date in this area, it's tempting to think that whatever the true identification of this bird, it's origins are most
likely not Britain but much further afield.
I'm quite glad that my photos do show this yellowish tinge to the fringes of the wing feathers because it also proves how very pale grey the undertail coverts were. Any yellow here would obviously show just as well as the yellow in the wings and the pale underparts are not just some quirk of the photograph.
Whatever the truth with this bird, it certainly brightened up the day!
Pink-footed geese are back but I haven't so far been able to find a flock on the ground on the mosslands.
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