Weegle

‘Gin he but saw the weegle-wag O’ ony wagtail’s tail’

(Paterson, Auld Saws in New Scots Sangs, 1915)

Casting back to Autumn 2017 when our garden became a haven for this juvenile Grey wagtail (Motacilla cinerea). I had only spotted adult grey wagtails in the past, and had only ever seen them near small burns, so at first I was concerned that the bird was injured, or otherwise in trouble, but it seemed fine, and spent the next few months as a daily visitor feeding with everyone else.

In early 2018 we were visited with the Beast Fae The East, so named by Scotland’s premier amateur weather forecaster, Windy Wilson. Our walled in nightmare of gravel and concrete, that has so far not had any transformative energy exerted on it, metamorphosed into a pristine white landscape stappit full o burds.

I hunkered down on the floor by the patio doors with my camera, and spent a lot of time watching and clicking. The glazing did blur the images a little, if I’m being a perfectionist, but it was really too cold to open the door and try to persuade the birds to accept me. With the doors closed they seemed to be oblivious to my presence, and it was an absolute treat.

Oor wee weegly wagtail liked the mealworms, and my challenge was to photograph the tail without too much blur.

A week or so after the Beast melted, Spring sprang and our little friend simply stopped visiting. We like to think that it found itself a territory on some running water, and a mate, and that was in part thanks to our feeding over winter.

“Weegle v., n.“. Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd.

Comments linky in case it’s not showing below 😉 (click the speech balloon with the + sign)