Since we moved back to a rural setting in Central Scotland my bird observing and the variety of birds accessible to me on a daily basis has not only changed but improved, in my opinion.
A couple of years back, a pair of Pied Wagtails used our garden as a food source for themselves and their young.
They brought at least one youngster that year but, although we see them every year, we haven’t seen any young ones since then. First of all. Is it the same birds? Secondly, they may nest away from the garden and not bring young here to feed.
I first spotted them in the field behind the house.
From memory, they brought one youngster to the garden that year.
These shots show a young bird on our back fence but it came onto the patio quite often.
Fast forward to 2023 and at least one bird would show up from time to time to feed but then disappeared.
I don’t have any shots from 2024, I do remember seeing them out in the farm yard but not in the garden, I think.
So it’s now 2025, already! When did that happen? This was “the future” when I was younger. 🙂
Anyway, the waggies have turned up again, or have turned up. This time, one of them has taken a liking to one of our patio doors, the glass.
The wee thing keeps running to our windows then tapping at this one with its beak, hopefully not hurting itself. I can only imagine it sees a rival? Having a go at it?
Either way, I watched for it yesterday evening with the aim of getting some shots.
It is reasonably tame, meaning it has been here before?
These are through the patio window, which we cleaned last week but not so you’d notice!
I opened the door a little and it stayed for a short while before bobbing over to the fence. So, I followed, slowly working my way closer.
It wasn’t perturbed by me moving closer at all.
Moving closer with a shorter lens.
Until finally …
I really was that close before it decided to fly over to the barns area. The farm yard is over our fence and the farmers have been rock clearing in a nearby field and now have a huge mound of rocks, which the birds love. This is an ongoing thing, the rocks get re-used elsewhere.
I’ve been seeing two Wagtails on the pile but they never seemed that close, one always keeping its distance?
This morning I spotted one hopping around d on top of the mound.
Definitely nesting materials there, I just hope they don’t decide to nest in the mound, it could be re-used at any time!!!
So, that’s the story so far, I’ll try too remember to get more shots and put an update together.
Meanwhile…. we often call Wagtails, Willy Wagtail! 😉
garden visitors
Scozmo's Photery 