Increasingly yellow!

 Sorry, more Yellow Wagtail pictures!

  

As last evening the breeze finally dropped at about 18.30 and a hurried trip to the Swannery was made and the Yellow Wags were already arriving. By the end of the evening there were over 380 Yellow Wagtails at the roost. Not seen anything like this for many years. Every time they started settling down a low flying swan would set them all off out across the embayment and then back into the reeds. Forty nine birds were trapped and ringed. The nets were closed early on to avoid too large a catch.

Not a Yellow Wagtail - sunrise this morning

Turning Yellow

A late decision to go down for a roost on Wednesday proved very successful. Despite the calm conditions there were hardly any hirundines in the sky over the Swannery -max count of 11 all evening and they all flew off east into the breeze. Yellow Wagtails though were streaming into the pre roost continuously for about an hour. Just one Pied Wagtail dared to get amongst them but it also flew off east as the numbers of Yellow Wags increased. In all 35 Yellow Wags were trapped and ringed including some fine males. Other species trapped were a few Reed and Sedge Warblers. The roost was in the region of 150 birds but more were dropping in as it got dark.

Another chance hopefully this evening if the wind doesn't pick up - and the Sparrowhawk stays away!