British Birding Association UK400 Club

I opened my August 2008 issue of British Birds today and was interested to find on page 454 a request for 'Colour-ringed wagtails'. I then read the statement ''There is growing evidence that White Wagtails (which comprise c15-20% of catches between November and February) regularly overwinter in SW England and the Channel Islands and a bird ringed at East Kilbride was resighted in Somerset early in 2008''.

 

I personally do not believe this to be true and believe it comes about from the fact that many ringers and birdwatchers in general are using the material published by Iain Livingstone on the internet (on behalf of the Clyde Ringing Group) as fact (unfortunately this paper has also been published in the latest lavish 'Birds in Scotland 3'. as well). This could mean that many Pied Wagtails are being trapped and ringed as White Wagtails.

 

I have made extensive comments on Iain's paper on the internet (cf White Wagtail Identification') and have informed the author of its shortcomings and pointed out inconsistencies with the photographs, etc, and misidentifications. However, all of this seems to have been ignored.

 

White Wagtail is an annual passage migrant to Britain, an occasional overwinterer and breeds regularly only in Shetland. Passage commences from early March (exceptionally late February) through to the third week in May in spring and from early August through to the third week of October in autumn, with some straggling birds in the west until mid November. Just the odd bird winters in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and certainly not in Scotland and not in large numbers in Devon.

 

Although there was some merit in what Iain was advocating in his paper, it was largely misleading and relied heavily on a host of incorrectly-labelled photographs. I am more concerned however by his fieldwork and if two recent examples are anything to go by, his practical application of criteria needs to be seriously challenged. Clearly, in my opinion, it is unsafe to identify juveniles in Lanarkshire in late summer.

 

For example, the wagtail in the link below was trapped and ringed as a juvenile WHITE WAGTAIL at The Olympia, East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, on 19 August 2007. The bird, multi colour-ringed, wintered with Pied Wagtails in Minehead (Somerset). In my opinion, this is clearly a first-winter PIED WAGTAIL. Note also that this was the bird referred to by British Birds above.

 

See http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/gallery/wagtail_ringed.html

 

Furthermore, a further bird ringed by Iain (Clyde Ringing Group) at East Kilbride as a WHITE WAGTAIL in August 2007 was reseen and photographed in The Netherlands in March 2008. Again, in my opinion, this bird is clearly a PIED WAGTAIL. See http://www.ltdphoto.com/insecteneters/rouwkwikstaart006.jpg

 

These two examples give me little confidence in Iain's findings and as such, I feel it is imperitive that an 'official document' purporting such information needs to be challenged, particularly as it appears to have been so widely adopted by ringers in this country.

 

To be fair to the BTO, Mark Grantham (of the Ringing Unit) has been in touch with me over this whole debate, and has accepted that new guidelines and criteria may have to be written, and I have agreed to lay out my proposals for White and Pied Wagtail identification for him.

 

If anyone has any educational images relating to the two species in juvenile/first-winter plumage, I would be very pleased to receive them.