You just never know what might turn up in autumn - a season when you can almost expect the unexpected!
As I sat at my desk this afternoon, a flash of bright yellow caught my eye outside the window. Peering carefully outside, I saw that it wasn’t one of the many blue or great tits that regularly visit the bird feeder, but a superb, slender grey wagtail showing off its brilliantly coloured rump!
It posed on top of the yew hedge, living up to its name by furiously pumping its tail up and down, before revealing the real reason for its surprise visit by dropping down onto the bird bath to take a drink.
The chances are that this bird had travelled quite some distance to get to Bedfordshire. A lot of upland grey wagtails move down to milder, food-rich lowland areas for winter and some even arrive from the continent in autumn.
Sometimes, the most exciting things in nature happen at the most unexpected times and in the strangest of places. This welcome visitor certainly brightened up my day!