Pied Wagtails (1 Viewer)

[Pete666]

Hi all
I was in Leigh Delamere services on the M4 around 330am the other day having a break in the lorry park and there were 50 or 60 pied wagtails running about on the tarmac.Now given the fact that it was a wet and windy morning I can't see that they were feeding or that there was anything about for them to feed on! Also I find it hard to believe that they were roosting. Has anyone any ideas?
Happy Birding
Pete B B

 

[Michael Frankis]

Maybe there's enough street lighting there for them to feed by?

Michael

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

In my experience, motorway service areas are quite favoured spots for roosting Pied Wags, so I'd imagine they might just have been disturbed from wherever they were having a kip.

 

[Edward woodwood]

yes Andrew, roosting I would almost certainly say...there is a large Pied Wag roost near me at thickthorn services on A47 just west of Norwich

 

[pduxon]

Aren't Pieds an amazing bird? They seem to love Motorway service centres or Supermarket car parks. Then you'll see them walking over ice in the middle of a field.

 

[Charles Harper]

Hmm, interesting question, which has brushed the edge of my mind also occasionally. The Black-backed (White) Wagtails behave similarly here. There are some large roosts on rooftops and window ledges right in downtown Tokyo, and at late dusk it's an amazing sight-- or mostly, sound-- as they arrive by the hundreds. And during the day they can be seen walking around in virtually any broad, open area, paved or otherwise. Most often, however, it is by ones or twos and threes, and in the latter case there is a good bit of territorial-type chasing going on. Still, what they find to eat is beyond me. Small insects and...?

 

[Ashley beolens]

I was under the impression that they were often to be found in carparks etc. as the tarmac retains heat, so makes for a warmer roosting area (and carparks are less busy and don't have fast cars when compared to roads).

Of course I am often wrong in these matters!

 

[seb_seb]

They eat crumbs from school playgrounds and town centres

 

[christineredgate]

As I mentioned in a thread just before Xmas,I saw a large and varied collection of birds,Pied Wagtails,Robin,Dunnock,Chaffinch,Robin etc whilst in a Service Station parking area,they obviously realize that visitors leave food scraps,also next to our row of houses we have a car park,and there seem to be 2 resident pairs of Pied Wagtails.I try to take take a pic of them,but they are far too quick!!
Christine

 

[Charles Harper]

Except, they don't roost on the tarmac, at least here, Ashley-- they're 'way up on a tall building. How high would perceptible heat rise?

 

[Ashley beolens]

Pre-roost/post-roost?

I'm grasping at straws now. They roost on buildings here as well, but I often see the local shop carpark covered with pieds.