Citrine Wagtail twitch

Before I recount the very successful and enjoyable weekend in Valdres I have a dirty little twitch to confess to. Whilst we were away Anders found a Citrine Wagtail at Årnestangen and with it still being present yesterday I had to go for it today. This would be an Akershus County tick for me and there have only been two previous records in Akershus plus one in Oslo, all being spring males.

As I arrived at the field where it was reported yesterday I immediately heard a simple wagtail song that very much resembled the song of thunbergi Yellow Wagtail but was perhaps a tad more zingy. It took a long time to locate the bird but I eventually found him (because a singing wagtail has to be a male?) on the ground in the middle of a field that had only recently been ploughed and sown (and in the process taken out at least one Lapwing nest). Only problem was that the plumage was very female like and in fact the only plumage element suggesting male (to me) were the black(ish) “shoulders”. My reading of the literature is that even a 1st summer male Citrine Wagtail should have a more developed plumage although I think the only explanation for this birds plumage is that it is a 1st summer male.

It spent nearly all of its time on the ground in the middle of the field and one reason may have been that a male thunbergi Yellow Wagtail was singing from bushes on the edge of the field. At one point though it did fly up into the same bushes and I had both birds singing close to each other (and close to me). The songs were very similar and I duly decided to record them although I have since discovered that in familiar style I failed to press the record button….

Also, my pictures have not come out as well as I thought they would. Despite the views through the scope being good my pictures have suffered from distance and heat haze. The song was so similar to the local Yellow Wags that I wonder whether I would have reacted had I not known there was a Citrine there and it did also not give its contact call either when I was there. On my last few visits to Årnestangen I have walked past singing “Yellow” Wagtails without spending any time trying to see them and now wonder whether it could have been there a while as beginning of June is a bit of a late date for one to turn up.

Citrine Wagtail (sitronerle). It sang so must be a male but plumage is strange

here I got very close to it when it sang from a bush but I was always below and in front so my pictures do not show any of the "interesting" bits

the male thunbergi (Grey-headed) Yellow Wagtail that sang nearby. This bird has a slight white supercilium perhaps suggesting some other subspecific genes in its heritage