11/05/2023 Potters Crouch, Hertfordshire

Channel Wagtail: This week I've been working down near Hemel Hampstead carrying out a series of bird surveys when I stumbled across this little stunner. no on one of my sites but while out birding locally.

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.

Yellow Wagtail: In the opposite filed there were several of the more standard yellow wags, they appeared to be paired up with a male sticking close to a female and change each other around while calling. 

08/04/2021 Carr Lane Pools, Hale, Cheshire

Channel wagtail (M f flava × flavissima): After work I drove down to Carr Lane Pools to unwind and attempt to pick out a water pipit.  From Town Lane looking onto the pools from the bridge I counted at least nine white wags, dozens of meadow pipits, two little ring plover and a single stunning Channel wag, but no water pipit.

Carr Lane is becoming well known for having breeding Channel wags, these little beauties are the commonest variety of blue-headed wags that we in the north of Britain typically get. 

Channel wags are a type of blue-headed wagtail and that form due to a pairing of yellow and blue-headed interbreeding.  This results in a wagtail that exhibits a washed-out blue/grey-head, often more extensive white in the supercilium, ear-coverts and throat. 

The wind was picking up and came with a bitter cole bite, so after staying a while I was forced to seek the warmth of my car heater.