Pied Wagtail In Snow

[JohnC]

I took these two photos today from the dining room through the patio door glass.

[SteveB]

I find these birds rather strange, I never see them in my back garden, but always see them in the road at the front of my house.

Always seem to see them in carparks as well

Edited January 13, 2010 by SteveB

[JonGill]

Excellent photos, John.

We had a pair of them in our garden last week, and they did nothing but chase the other small birds away from the feeding trays etc, including a couple of times a Robin.

[JohnC]

Thanks for comments. You're right,Steve. A few times in the last couple of months I've seen them walking around on a local road,it's not well used so they don't get disturbed too often but I've never seen them anywhere else and I had it in mind to go to them one day to get a photo. We often have a yellow wagtail on the pond lilies but,as you say, never the pied in the garden until now and it spends a fair amount of time here,I suppose when this cold period goes so will this bird - back to it's road and car parks. I've not seen it chase other birds though but it has a lot of food to choose from and I place it in two locations on the lawn. I put out, chopped apples , just the Basics range from Sainsbury's, they're cheap and fine for the birds but not very tasty for us though and we have Mr. and Mrs. Fieldfare visiting-the female is a lovely colour.I'll try and get a photo of her.- I grate the fat balls which I have for the hanging feeders and put that on the ground too,I also grind nuts in the food blender and soak Californian seedless raisins(very tasty they are too Lol) mealworm and seeds mixed and wholemeal bread softened ,so a bird restaurant really. I try to keep the bird bath full too, that won't be a problem now with the thaw. The birds that do chase each other are the blackbirds-they only chase the other blackbirds (we have 6 resident) away from what they perceive to be 'their' food source.

I assume coming up as thumbnails is the norm. on here rather than a 6 x 4 (approx).