As I was working my way through a public right of way checking the field boundaries I noticed a familiar call of a yellow wagtail enervating from a field with some space rapeseed to find it was a blue handed variety of yellow wag.
Blue-headed and yellow wagtails are known to ‘hybridise’ in northern France, and the resulting intergrades are known as ‘Channel’ wagtails. These show much paler heads than blue-headed – silvery-grey, powder-blue or even approaching white. They turn up quite regularly with our yellow wagtails in the spring.
