Next Term’s Birds, 4: Yellow Wagtail

 Male Yellow (Flava) Wagtail 

A further bright spring migrant and another bird we will encounter next term is the Yellow Wagtail.  This is yet another bird which has declined sharply since the late 60s, but it is hanging on in the East Riding.  In 1968 it is now thought there may have been as many as 100,000 breeding pairs in Britain, but by 2016 this figure had fallen to an estimated 20,000 pairs.  Throughout East Yorkshire in the 70s Yellow Wagtails were a fairly common site among many inland waterways, such as the eastern edge of Leven Canal, but these have been wiped out by creeping urbanisation and changes in the surrounding habitats.  These days they seem largely confined to areas fairly close to the Humber.  Yellow Wagtails have a colloquial name of ‘Milkmaids’, because when they first return they are often found at the feet of cattle and other farm animals, as their droppings attract insects, which may also be disturbed when the cattle move.  Milkmaids is certainly a more attractive name than one associated with muck-heaps, as this is another location where Yellow Wagtails may gather when they first arrive back in the UK and need to refuel quickly.  When they reappear they can occasionally be found in large numbers of over 100 individuals.  One of the best places for this is the field beyond Ousefleet hide at Blacktoft Sands, which the Konik ponies use as a latrine.    In Britain we have a distinct race of the Flava Wagtail, which is the umbrella term for the species over the whole of Europe.  Ours is the flavissima, which has a green head and broad yellow supercilium. In adjacent areas of Europe the most abundant race is the Blue-headed Wagtail, and when these interbreed with our race, a male with a cold pale grey head, known unofficially as the ‘Channel’ Wagtail, is the result.  A Black-headed version may be found in the Balkans, Turkey and the Caucuses; whilst a Grey-headed race usually breeds in north Fennoscandia and Russia. In Southern Italy, Switzerland and France the most usually encountered race is referred to as the Ashy-headed Wagtail; whilst yet another with a grey head and habitually with a thin white supercilium is found on the Iberian Peninsula and parts of NW Africa.  Occasionally, some of these European races turn up on the coasts at locations like Spurn, but on my classes we will encounter the very attractive British race, but there is a slim chance of a Blue-headed, and to a lesser extent, the ‘Channel’ Wagtail.