A-Z Challenge 2013 - 'W' - Wagtail

My A-Z posts this year are based on my garden – flowers, animals, the birds and the bees, butterflies - with a bit of poetry thrown in. For some letters I am expecting to cheat somewhat –wishing they were here.

W – Wagtail, Wallflower, Weigela, Woodpecker, Wood Pigeon, Wren.

It seems strange to call this fellow grey, when really he is anything but,

 

Grey Wagtail on dock wall at the Tees Barrage

There is no better description of the one that has visited our garden that that by John Clare. He obviously studied this bird.

Pied Wagtail

 Little trotty wagtail he went in the rain,

And tittering, tottering sideways he ne'er got straight again,

He stooped to get a worm, and looked up to get a fly,

And then he flew away ere his feathers they were dry.

Our village is in North Yorkshire so I was pleased to find a verse in dialect that ended:

Folk ‘at’s tired gits churlish

An’ starts t’ owd World’s disorders—

Ther’d be less quarrels if they grew

Wallflowers I’ their borders.

Wallflowers

The wallflowers in our border however have set themselves; they appear every year no matter how many we pull up.

As I could not find another ‘W’ flower we grow I have had to make do with a shrub,

Weigela Bush (and Foxglove)

 I mentioned one species of woodpecker under ‘L’, but the most recent visitor is the Greater Spotted variety – a bird that moves so quickly it’s difficult to photograph. I wrote about it separately here.

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

  But the top bird in our garden and certainly the most numerous is this one in the sycamore tree.

 

Wood Pigeon

And in the bird bath which it thinks it owns.

 

Bird Bath (between Potentilla and the Rose)

Nesting in the hedge alongside the garden shed.

 

Nesting Wood Pigeon

Despite its presence the bird that, for its size, surprises you most with the strength of its song remains:

 

Jenny Wren

Small and pert she hops around

Hither and thither all over the ground

Speckled and neat her rich brown coat

Pale eyebrow and buff coloured throat

Poems:

• Little Trotty Wagtail – John Clare
• Wallflowers – Dorothy Una Ratcliffe
• Jenny Wren – Bumpsysmum

Photos:

• Pied Wagtail – Ken Billington – CC BY-SA 3.0
• Wren – Ken Billington – CC BY-SA 3.0