Loch of Harray Tuesday evening. There was a huge roost of alba wags by the Merkister hotel. Looking again tonight something between one in four and one in three were alba.alba
In UK we generally have Pied Wagtail breeding Motacilla.alba.yarrelli on the continent Motacilla.alba.alba is the nominate form, often called White Wagtail. In the spring and autumn White Wagtail occurs in Orkney fairly frequently and has bred. There are other wagtail species in the UK, Grey and Yellow being the more frequent. A convenient way to refer to Pied/White Wagtails that are not subspecifically identified is to refer to them as "alba wags".
2 comments:
What's an alba wagtail? New to me, guessing it's a local Northern pied variant.
Those shots are gorgeous.
In UK we generally have Pied Wagtail breeding Motacilla.alba.yarrelli on the continent Motacilla.alba.alba is the nominate form, often called White Wagtail. In the spring and autumn White Wagtail occurs in Orkney fairly frequently and has bred. There are other wagtail species in the UK, Grey and Yellow being the more frequent. A convenient way to refer to Pied/White Wagtails that are not subspecifically identified is to refer to them as "alba wags".
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