The redwings that I wrote about in the last Note are "proper migrants": here in winter gone in summer. The basic idea that a migrant bird is one that spends half its life with us obscures the fact that most species are swirling around us. Some individuals stay with us all year, some migrate away and are replaced by others coming in. Last week I had a pied wagtail on the lawn for a few minutes. I had just enough time to photograph it through the kitchen window. Pied wagtails are partial migrants: some move between seasons, others remain in the same place. In general, those living in mild places may not move far but wagtails nesting in northern Europe fly to northern Africa for the winter. In Britain, wagtails from the north of Scotland join their English neighbours. But even the southern residents are not static. Young wagtails are more likely to wander. Some cross the Channel to France, Spain and Portugal. They are driven out by cold weather but it takes a severe spell to shift the adults. Even so, the latter are likely to move from their nesting places. So I have no idea where this wagtail came from or where it is going to. It could have been blown across the North Sea while migrating from Scandinavia to Africa or it could have been living down by the river. I usually see wagtails on the roof where they catch insects on warm days. Despite being almost wholly insectivorous, they eat a few seeds and occasionally come to bird-tables in winter.
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