Moult

My friend J calls these "car park wagtails", because most supermarket car parks seem to be well populated with them, but this one has chosen to make his territory at the top end of Henley Street in Stratford. I think he probably makes a reasonable living by clearing up the crumbs* dropped by people using the outdoor tables of the numerous cafés there.

Recently I've been seeing pied wagtails all over the place, and some of them have been so scruffy that I seriously feared for their welfare, but I did some research the other day and my RSPB Handbook of British Birds reassured me that while the species' main moult occurs (as you'd expect) after breeding in the late summer and early autumn, there is a second partial moult between January and March. I'm now happy that it's this second moult, into breeding plumage, that I've been observing, and that's backed up by the fact that while this male is still a bit untidy, he's noticeably sleeker than he was when I saw him last week. I know that he's male by the black plumage on his back; females have grey backs, and the black markings on their heads and throats are less extensive.

I took this photo as R and I were approaching BTP, where we'd decided to lunch in celebration of it being the 37th anniversary of our first date, for the perhaps slightly odd reason that we were confident they'd be playing the music of our heyday. Today we walked in and burst out laughing as we realised we were hearing Hall & Oates. We ate quesadillas (highly recommended) while playing Name the Band (pretty easy, to be honest - there was only one track we struggled with during the entire lunch), and discussing Great Gigs of Our Youth, which is always a fun conversation. One day I may ask one of the staff, who all seem to be in their 20's, which one of them is responsible for a playlist that exclusively comprises 1970s and 1980s music, so that I can send my congratulations to the parent (or maybe grandparent) whose record collection they've been raiding.

* "tchrums" in our house at the moment (and possibly henceforth), because that's how the Boy Wonder currently pronounces the word.