First seen
by Tomás García at the end of last year, on the afternoon of 4th January I had a
couple of hours free and went with Tomás to the piles of manure near the A30
Cartagena-Murcia motorway where amongst the masses of White Wagtails (Motacilla alba alba), feeding on
insects, there is a Pied Wagtail (Motacilla
alba yarrellii). Although I’m not
normally too bothered about sub-species, I thought I’d go and have a look at
the bird as they’re pretty rare in Murcia (in Spain in general, as would be
expected, the further north, the more common they are in winter), and it didn’t
seem right not to bother after it had flown so far! Although
the light wasn’t brilliant, I managed to get a few photos including one of
the bird with a White Wagtail in the frame. On my way home just before
dark, I had a female Merlin cross the motorway plus a Sparrowhawk – the Merlin
was my second that day prior to which I hadn’t seen one since autumn 2012! So all in all, not a bad afternoon!
Exact
location details for the wagtail can be found on the website ‘www.reservoirbirds.com’.
Pied Wagtail, the last photo a record shot also showing
the colour difference with a White Wagtail in the foreground
No comments:
Post a Comment