White Wagtail Motacilla alba alba
Nominate continental form is a scarce passage migrant, mainly March to June. Pied/White Wagtails that cannot be assigned to a race are referred to as “Alba Wagtails”.
White Wagtail is the nominate race M.a.alba breeding in nearby mainland Europe, and can only be reliably identified in the field and separated from the much more numerous indigenous British yarrelli race in adult breeding plumage. This account focuses on their spring passage when identification is most certain and birds are most numerous. It is an early migrant and LBR for the five years to 2018 indicates that first birds arrived from March 12th-31st. Peak site counts across the county tend to be in April and have varied from eight in 2015 to 84 in 2016. The largest day counts tend to be in a very narrow window from April 14th-18th and are usually from Frampton Marsh where there were 40 on April 16th, 2017 and 30 on April 15th, 2016.
(Account as per new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021), included December 2022)