Eastern Yellow Wagtail

Stuck at work yesterday when a reported Yellow Wagtail at Prestwick Carr quickly escalated, as expected, into probable Eastern. Photos showed the required long hind claw and pale base to the bill, while the call was reported as spot on.

Before first light this morning I was on site with a handful of those unable to get there yesterday. It was barely light when I picked up the bird on its harsh, rasping call as it dropped into the flooded field just in front of us. Now happy that it was an Eastern, I spent the next hour with the bird, at times just a few feet away, seemingly feeding well on blood worms despite the thin coating of ice. It regularly took short flights giving the same harsh call as the other three Eastern Yellow Wagtails that I have seen on Scilly. With limited time before work the light was a bit poor for photos, but I'm not really complaining!

Eastern Yellow Wagtail