Aren’t they the same?
It’s been a great Easter here at Saltholme , with literally thousands of visitors over the last week visiting and enjoying everything we have to offer.
The wildlife certainly hasn’t disappointed either.
We’ve had several sightings of white wagtails as they pass through on their way to breed in Northern Europe and Scandinavia, although they are known to breed in Shetland too.
You might say “Isn’t white wagtail just a pied wagtail?” Well yes and no!
The pied wagtail that we’re all familiar with here in the UK, is a slightly darker sub species of the white wagtail which is predominantly found in continental Europe.
It takes a keen eye to spot the difference between them in the field, the white wag tail has a paler back then our native pied wagtail, amongst some other very subtle differences.
We’ve now got in excess of 40 sand martins busying themselves around the sand martin bank. Recent observations show 20 holes are being actively used, ready for birds to lay their eggs towards the end of May.
They can be seen from our visitor centre, hawking over the main lake in search of flies, insects and bugs.
Sand martins are another bird easily confused with others namely house martins and swallows. When seen together they’re fairly easy to tell apart.
To finish with, we’ve also had regular sightings of marsh harrier, peregrine and even a lone Brent goose which landed at Paddy’s just as we were closing on Tuesday.