WAGTAILS are such energetic little birds and I can’t recall ever seeing one standing still for more than a few seconds. But it is the tail that really attracts the eye, for it just can’t stop wagging, and the more excited the bird gets, the faster that tail wags.

The ‘little trotty wagtail’ as so eloquently described by the 19th century poet John Clare really is a bird with a most compelling zest for life.

In this part of the country, we have two breeding species, the pied wagtail and the grey wagtail. If ever there was a misnomer, then surely it must apply to the grey wagtail, for rather than being drab as the name suggests, it is in fact one of our most colourful birds, especially the male with his most striking yellow underparts.

The grey wagtail is a specialist of fast flowing rivers and streams. They are very nimble birds, quickly moving from rock to rock in search of tiny insects. They almost always hang around in pairs and will soon be building their intricately woven nests by tangled tree roots on the riverbank.

The pied wagtail is our commonest type and is known in some parts of the country as ‘dishwasher’ and ‘washerwoman’ or derivations thereof, possibly because the black and white plumage resembles the clothes worn by washerwomen of old. The term may also be a reflection of their common occurrence along the edges of ponds and streams. In folklore, a wagtail tapping on a window is considered an ill-omen, while in Ireland the pied wagtail was reputed to have a drop of the ‘devil’s blood’.

Conversely, in gypsy mythology the pied wagtail was considered a bringer of good luck and that if ‘you meet a wagtail on the road you will see a true born Romany before many minutes have passed’. The pied wagtail was also believed to have the power of granting any wish which may be on the mind of a person across whose path it flies. Even today the pied wagtail is still sometimes referred to as the gypsy bird.