Gardening has never been one of my favourite pastimes. On the evening of 13 May 2005 I was easily distracted from the task in hand, weeding the front garden, by the behaviour of a pair of Pied Wagtails Motacilla alba yarrelli. A female landed on the road less than three metres from where I was supposedly weeding and began walking, occasionally running, to and fro, picking something small from the surface of the road. Whatever she was gleaning was too small for me to see with the naked eye, let alone identify, even at close range. After a short while a male Pied Wagtail landed close to the female and began following her, almost beak to tail. The female continued to feed, seeming to completely ignore the male, who made no attempt to feed. The male must have followed the female in this way for more than a minute and for more than 10 metres across the road before giving a display that I had not seen before. He seemed to flatten himself into the road, spreading his tail and left wing wide while the right wing was kept folded close to the body. He took on a most unbird-like, startlingly black-and-white shape. The female continued feeding, walking away from, and still apparently ignoring, the male. He held the display posture for 5-10 seconds before standing up, shaking himself and then running after the female. Once behind her, he again flattened himself into the road. Sadly at that point a car came round the corner, disturbing both wagtails which flew away over the houses. I returned to my weeding.
