Friday 10 September 2010 - The story so far....

We recently noticed a pair of wagtails hanging around our garden. In April our neighbours who owned three cats moved out and since then we've been noticing more varieties of birds visiting our garden. For the past 5 years we've had mostly doves and pigeons with a few sparrows. The wagtails caught my attention because I hadn't seen them for so long.

On 28 August we I noticed that the wagtails were building a nest in the creeper just outside our kitchen window. I wondered if they would stick around so close to our activities and daily goings on. They were apparently building two nests but they seem to have settled on one location. This photo shows one of the wagtails working on a nest and another one with only his tail visible to the right, working on another.

After that we saw them infrequently for a few days. I wondered if they had gone off to find a more "private" location to set up home.

 On the 2nd September I was delighted to see them pecking around in our vegetable patch, which is quite rich in compost and of course worms. This little chap then hopped onto the lawn and started searching for insects the grass. He eyed me a bit suspiciously but didn't seem too perturbed.

Again much to our delight we saw them both in the nest on 6 September. I immediately covered the lower part of the window with white paper and cut a tiny peep hole. We could then watch without being seen or threaten the happy couple. Mark took a photo of me peeping at the "neighbours" through my peep hole.

On 9 September I looked out of the bathroom window and saw Ms Wagtail in the nest. I slowly opened the window wider to get a shot but she flew away. After about an hour I noticed she was there again and I managed to get a photo. She kept a wary eye on me but remained in the nest this time. I do hope they get used to our bathroom window being open and seeing a camera lens emerge from time to time. We really do have ringside seats and we are looking forward to watching them raise their chicks.