Three fledglings discovered in car bumper

Three pied wagtail fledglings have had a lucky escape, after being rescued from a car bumper by the RSPCA in Bournemouth.

Car technician Jon Brooks was about to start an oil change on the car, which had been booked in for a service, when he heard chirping and decided to investigate.

To his surprise he found a nest, with three young birds inside, behind the bumper, balancing on part of the car’s under-tray. He carefully transferred the nest into a box, before calling in the RSPCA. 

It proved a lucky chirp for the young nestlings, who were seemingly unscathed despite having travelled under the car for about five miles to the garage!

“We’re very grateful to Mr Brooks and all the staff at the dealership for acting so quickly and carefully to protect these tiny birds," said RSPCA inspector Graham Hammond.

"Thanks to them they have been given the best chance of surviving but you do have to feel a little sorry for the parent birds who would have come back to find not only their nest, but the whole car gone!

“Of course we would usually ask anyone finding fledglings to leave them alone as their parents will return to them, but in this case it would have been impossible to find the exact area that they came from so they will be given the best of care and released when they are ready.”

Source

Country Corner

It may be common but the Pied Wagtail is always worth watching.

Chasing insects across a lawn, or even in mid air, this acrobatic little bird is always active and eye catching.

Wagtails are often thought of as riverside birds.

In the case of the grey wagtail and many pied wagtails, that is undeniably true.

However, it is quite common to meet pied wagtails almost anywhere.

They are even happy to nest among industrial sites as work goes on around them. I have even known them to nest in the engines of vehicles.

Unusually for such a common bird, the pied wagtail is sought after by bird watchers for a particular reason.

This is because it is not so much a species as a race of the European white wagtail.

White wagtails can be seen here during migration, especially along the coast. Deciding if a bird is a white or pied wagtail is not always a straight forward task. Much of the confusion is caused by the great variety of plumage patterns between males, females and juveniles of both species.

Another seemingly strange aspect of pied wagtail life is the way these lone insect chasers will become very gregarious in winter, often forming night roosts of several thousand birds.

Like starlings, they often choose town centre locations for these communal roosts.

Continued