YELLOW WAGTAIL

Yellow Wagtail nesting in beans” © John Swift.

Yellow Wagtails are slightly bigger than House Sparrows, and the same shape and size as their close relative, the much more common Pied Wagtail.  Males are a bright canary yellow, with a yellowish-green crown, cheeks and back.  Females are much browner, and the yellow underparts are much paler.  Juveniles are more buff, and less bright.

The Shropshire population is highest when Yellow Wagtails pass through during spring migration in April and early May, and during return migration in August and September.  However, many do breed here, mainly in the valleys of the River Severn and its tributaries to the north and east, and the north-east is the County stronghold. However, the Onny Valley , around Lydham and Bishop’s Castle, also holds several pairs, and the Teme valley near Ludlow holds a few.   

Almost all nests are on the ground, and the vast majority are sheltered by a tuft or tussock of grass.  The first clutch, usually five or six eggs, is most frequently laid in mid-May.  If the clutch is lost, a replacement may be laid, but Yellow Wagtails usually only raise one brood.  Incubation takes 11-14 days, the young leave the nest after another 10-13 days, and they fly for the first time about 17 days after hatching.

Historically, Yellow Wagtails have mainly inhabited flat land in broad valleys along the lower reaches of rivers, usually nesting in water meadows, damp cattle grazed pastures and marshes, or at the edges of lakes and on sewage farms.  They have been in decline since the early 1980s, and they are now on the Amber List in “The Population Status of Birds in the UK – Birds of Conservation Concern:  2002-2007”.  National monitoring by the British Trust for Ornithology has found an even sharper decline since 1999, and the population now is only around one-third of its level 25 years ago.  This is mainly attributed to farmland drainage, the conversion of pasture to arable land, the change from spring to autumn cereals, and a reduction in the number of insects associated with cattle as a result of modern farming methods.

This population decline has also occurred locally.    “An Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Shropshire”, published in 1992, showed that the species had already responded to the loss of its primary habitat, and most Shropshire nests were on damp arable land, particularly in potatoes, although fields of other crops were also used.  In response to the national decline, in 2003 and 2004 the Society re-surveyed around one in five (20%) of the tetrads where Yellow Wagtails were found to breed during “Atlas” fieldwork, and found them in only 12 of the 28 (43%) surveyed.

The distribution maps on the previous page show the current known distribution, based on records submitted by SOS members 2000-04, including the results of the systematic survey carried out in 2003-04, and a comparison with the distribution found by fieldwork between 1985 and 1990, and shown in the 1992 Shropshire Atlas.  A separate map shows the results of the 2003-04 survey, indicating the areas where Yellow Wagtails have disappeared in the last 15 or so years.

In view of the population decline, and the dependence of the species on farmland habitats, Yellow Wagtail is one of the target species which the new Agricultural Subsidy Scheme, particularly the Higher Level Scheme in the Environmental Stewardship regime, aims to help.  Farmers who wish to join the scheme have to take into account the habitat requirements of Yellow Wagtail, if they have bred within two kilometres of the farm in the last five years. 

Recent research has shown that, on arable land, Yellow Wagtails feed on damp areas of short vegetation or bare ground. Early in the season nests are in winter cereals, close to tramlines, but, as the season progresses, later nests are located in peas then potatoes. Ideally, habitat management will involve re-creating insect-rich wet meadows with cattle pasture, as other priority species (Snipe, Curlew and Redshank) will also benefit. Failing that, a shift from autumn to spring cereals, leaving patches of bare ground in winter cereals, and locating cereals near potato crops, should all help. Set aside land, where rough, un-cropped, un-sprayed and often damp ground provides an abundance of insects, is also favoured habitat for the Wagtails. Such management of arable land will also benefit Skylarks, another of Defra’s farmland target birds.

Readers are requested to send in breeding season records for Yellow Wagtail, and all the other target species listed by Defra.

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