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Bill, that's a very good question. There's a Pied Wagtail which is close to being a UK endemic species. However a friend of mine has been colour ringing both Pied and White Wagtails at Slapton in the Autumn and some Pied Wagtails have been seen as far south as Senegal, so Pied Wagtails do occur on the continent. White Wagtails are the real continental bird with some passing through the UK to nest in Iceland.
The grey on your bird is probably light enough to be a White Wagtail and the real clincher is the colour of the rump, grey for a White Wagtail and blackish for a Pied. Difficult to be certain with that bird, it shades out in that view, but I'd go more for White. Just to confuse things, they can inter breed!!:)

Barrie

Thanks Barrie

I thought the White Wagtail was another name for the Pied Wagtail

SW France about 100kms inland

These birds are quite common around here - I'll try to get a few more images - but the above was taken at the end of October when the light was good - now the light is awful

another shot taken on the same day - but 20 mins later so may not be the same bird

unknown_bird_2.jpg
 
Thanks Barrie

I thought the White Wagtail was another name for the Pied Wagtail

SW France about 100kms inland

These birds are quite common around here - I'll try to get a few more images - but the above was taken at the end of October when the light was good - now the light is awful

Sadly Bill it's not quite as easy as that. You can have a species and then sub species which are recognisable in the field. The species is know as the nominate race and it's plumage details are if you like the master by which others are judged. For this group it's the White Wagtail that is the nominate race, otherwise Motacilla alba, the Pied Wagtail is a sub species Motacilla alba yarrellii. The sub species will always have a different third latin name, sometimes the nominate is given a third latin name but it is the same as the existing second latin name. Yarrell was actually an English ornithologist who differentiated between these two species.

Barrie
 
Barrie and Paul - the book that I have is the DK Complete Birds of Britain and Europe - 488 Pages - RSPB - with the CD, (bird song)

Can you recommend any others? ......... particularly interested in France and northern Spain, (planning another trip in the Spring - Aragon region - it is only a few hours away by car)
 
Bill, it's about 10 years old now, but one that was and probably still is highly regarded is the Collins Bird Guide by Killian Mullarney, Lars Svensson, Dan Zetterstrom and Peter J Grant. It's a black covered book and is a complete guide for Britain and Europe, so from the North Cape of Norway and northern Russia right down to North Africa and over to Turkey.

Barrie
 
the Collins (ISBN-13: 978-0007267262) went into a second edition at the beginning of 2010 and then had a reprint with corrections
It's very well regarded, and can be had from Amazon for £15 or so. Until you get up to Barrie's level of expertise, you won't need anything else.

There are those who say that beginners shouldn't use such a comprehensive field guide because it's confusing for them ... but I think that's fabulously condescending.
 
One from this morning - cold here

Great Crested Grebe, (?)

surprising how far they swim underwater once they dive - just looked them up and apparently they live for 10 to 15 years naturally

D300 - still taken from a distance -but the light was better this morning and I could use f8 on my Nikon 70 - 300mm VR
still a big crop at ISO800 - plus quite a bit of adjustment in LR to get rid of the "noise" etc

grebe.jpg
 
Bill, they tend to catch more prey than they can eat at the time, they often cache the uneaten prey by skewering it on thorns, so it hangs up like sides of meat in an old fashioned butchers shop.

Barrie

I see - there are lots of flies in Os

I'm not really a fan of Magpies
 
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