WHAT IS THE COLLECTIVE NOUN FOR WAGTAILS

I always insist that the CFZ bods take a digital camera with them wherever they go, but now I have been hoist by my own petard, because a couple of days before Christmas, as Corinna and I finished our Christmas shopping, I singularly failed to do what I have been preaching for so long. I reached for my camera, and it was not there. So we had to rely on Corinna's mobile phone which was OK, but not really up to the job.

Pied wagtails are delightful little creatures, and found all across much of Britain and Ireland. They are one of my favourite British birds, but although you never see more than one or two together during the daytime, it has been written of them that they roost together in huge numbers, but until now I had never been priveliged to see one of these mass roosts.

Until now that is. The shades of night were drawing fast, so it was about tea time inthe car park of Tesco in Barnstaple when we saw a mass roost on three trees in the car park. There must have been three hundred of the little birds there.

The thing that I found so peculiar was that the trees were not even slightly sheltered, and I am sure that with even a little exploration they could have found somewhere much more cosy.

But they didn't.

It was a horrible night with snow and hail, and as I was tucked up in bed with Corinna and Biggles, I found myself worrying about the myriad of wagtails, and hoping that they made it through the night OK. But I suppose they know better than me what they were doing...