The sound of river water always draws me near, offering the possibility of interesting wildlife close by. Even small tributaries quietly tumbling along are home to enough aquatic invertebrates and small fish to attract mammals and birds. They are havens for specialist hunters, otter, mink, predatory dragonflies on the chase for other winged insects, and various birds like the grey heron, waiting patiently in the shallows to ambush a fish or frog.
Other inhabitants might include the dynamic kingfisher, with its bright orange underparts and azure, blue wings and back, so striking in flight. The squat dipper too, a jewel of turbulent waters, will fly low above rivers before landing on rocks to show off its white bib.
It was another bird, however, close to the Laghy River flowing under its 18th century bridge through the village into Donegal Bay, to the west, which recently caught my attention. A grey wagtail, unfussy but joyful, with brilliant yellow breast, undertail feathers, and grey upperparts flew in undulating motion, calling out as it disappeared under the stone bridge.
The male bird boasts a black throat, less obvious in the female, with whitish stripes above and below the eye. Both birds have the characteristic long bobbing tail just like its familiar cousin, the predominantly black and white pied wagtail. Another related species, the yellow wagtail is a scarce passage migrant, found along southern and eastern Irish coastal locations and has an overall much yellower appearance than Motacilla cinerea.
The favoured habitats of the grey wagtail are fast flowing upland streams but also more sluggish lowland rivers. Nineteenth century poet and folklorist Lady Wilde, mother of Oscar, wrote in one of her two volumes about how, “a water wagtail near the house betokens bad news on its way to you”. Other folklore though suggests its presence near your doorstep brings good fortune and prosperity.
Nesting in the cavities of walls, rocky ledges and banks they forage for mayflies, caddisflies and aquatic larvae near the water. A widespread resident bird found in all counties of Ireland, its Irish name, ‘Glasóg liath’, translates as the ‘greyish–green little thing’ and is evident in local place names, such as the townland of Terryglassog, near Eglish, Co Tyrone, from its original ‘Derryglassog’, the ‘Doire’ or ‘oak grove of the wagtails’.
Active and busy birds they are constantly on the move flitting gracefully from stone to stone with the long tail constantly wagging, leading to the Irish phrase, ‘Chomh breabhsánta le glasóg’ as sprightly as a wagtail.
Thomas Hardy, in his poem Wagtail and Baby, presumably writing of the grey wagtail, describes the bird drinking at the river as a baby looks on. He writes how splashing water from a travelling horse didn’t budge the wagtail as: “He gave his plumes a twitch and toss, And held his own unblinking.”
The wagtail’s characteristic, incessant tail wagging was the subject of a paper. ‘Is tail wagging in white wagtails, Motacilla alba, an honest signal of vigilance?’
In Animal Behaviour (Christoph Randler, 2006) after examining the possibility of tail wagging being used to flush out prey or signalling to potential mates, the author concluded that the behaviour was most likely a signal of “an individual’s state of alertness to predators”.
Folklorist Kevin Danaher in his book Irish Customs and Beliefs (1964), however, attributes the cause of this behaviour to the much less scientific reason that “the three drops of the devil’s blood on its tail”, mean the bird can never keep the tail or body still.
The grey wagtail’s colourful dress and willowy movements near our waterways are always a joy to watch.
