13 October 2015

The Goldrush

With all the excitement of the Yellow-browed Warbler influx at the moment, from Shetland to Cornwall, it could be easy to overlook the fact that Goldcrest is also doing very well (see the reporting rates on BirdTrack below). Weighing about 6g, this tiny bird was thought to ride on the backs of Woodcock to our shores (as they arrived at a similar time to Goldcrest) from Scandinavia and the Continent because they wouldn't be able to make it on their own; hence the old name of 'Woodcock pilot'. We now know this is not the case and they can make these massive migrations all on their own.


Ringers all over the country have been catching large numbers of Goldcrest with 150 ringed at Landguard Bird Observatory and 485 ringed at Spurn Bird Observatory over the last three days. This would be a small fraction of the number of birds actually moving through, as the 1,000+ estimate at Gibraltar Bird Observatory on one day can testify.

We have heard that a few have been caught wearing rings from different countries, for example the Mid Lincs Ringing Group caught a Goldcrest ringed in Denmark and a Polish-ringed bird was caught by Tees Ringing Group and Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory caught a Dutch and Latvian ringed Goldcrest. Mike Marsh and his team from Orfordness Nature Reserve managed to catch 109 Goldcrest last Sunday (11 Oct) and one of them was ringed on 6 October at Falsterbo Ringing Station, Sweden! Amazingly, the ring number was TM3052, which, if you put this as a grid reference on an OS 1km map, is only 15km from where the bird was caught. We don't believe this Goldcrest was pre-programmed to go here!

Goldcrest from Sweden. Image of ring taken by several photos of ring merged. By Dave Crawshaw

There are bound to have been more foreign Goldcrest captures over the past few days so feel free to share your stories below in the comments box.
Posted by Lee Barber at 17:11
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7 comments:

  1. Unknown14 October 2015 at 16:02

    This morning (14 October) I caught a Dutch-ringed Goldcrest in Cheshire, part of a catch of 23 Goldcrests in mixed woodland, 7 of which were wearing rings. The others were one from 2013 and four from 2014 at the same site, and one ringed 2km away two days ago. A nice mixture presumably of some local residents and some immigrants.

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  2. Anonymous16 October 2015 at 16:46

    Found a dead firecrest in our front garden on Wednesday 14/10/15 (NG5 8NL). In perfect condition. Mystery!

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  3. Becci16 October 2015 at 17:00

    I've seen two goldcrests (or perhaps the same one twice) thus far in our garden in NI this year, up from absolutely zero in 2014. It's only our second winter at this house so I don't know for sure how unusual this is but they're very exciting visitors nonetheless and I it makes sense in light of the news of the influx!

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  4. Olwood16 October 2015 at 17:22

    Had a goldcrest family hatched an raised in a tree in my garden this year. Lovely to watch them grow!

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  5. Phil19 October 2015 at 08:49

    Have had a couple of Goldcrest in our Garden feeding for a few days never seen them before CT9 3EU

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  6. Phil19 October 2015 at 08:49

    Have had a couple of Goldcrest in our Garden feeding for a few days never seen them before CT9 3EU

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  7. Project Member (DWT)26 October 2015 at 20:10

    Two goldcrests in my Derbyshire garden have been feeding in a rowan tree for the last week or so, utilising the same parts of the tree each day. Usually they are with a mixed tit flock but sometimes they stay on their own. There was a chiffchaff in the same tit flock on Sunday (25th).

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