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.

Cetti's to the Conquest of Northumberland

The last decades have seen a change in the distribution of many species as a result of climate warming. If you read the abstract of this recent article you will see this affecting many different terrestrial organisms. In the bird world, a typical example of range shift towards the north is that of the Cetti's Warbler. Some years ago, the species featured in headlines like "Mediterranean Songbird Spreads", but today the Cetti's Warbler is no longer just a bird of the Mediterranean, but British in its own right - resident in many of the Southern counties of England. Cetti's Warblers are slowly (or rapidly, depending on your timescale) advancing north as can be seen in the sequenced maps from the old Breeding Atlases here.

On 2nd of October 2011 ringers from the Natural History Society of Northumbria Ringing Group controlled a Cetti's Warbler. This is, as far as we are aware, the first time that a Cetti's Wabler has been captured by ringers in this county. The bird in question GBT X586751 had been ringed as a 3J the 26 June 2010 by Tees Ringing Group, just a few kilometres south in Billingham, Cleveland. This ringing event is important because it could be the first evidence from ringing of the species moving north and conquering a new county. Perhaps in a few years the Cetti's Warbler will be an established BIRD OF NORTHUMBERLAND! We can't wait to find out from the next Atlas just how far Cetti's Warblers has spread.

To read an article about Cetti's Warbler and ringing data go here.

(Photo of a Cetti's Wabler in the hand by Dawn Balmer)

Terns around the World

The Common Tern is a seabird which can be found breeding in most of Europe, Asia and North America. After breeding in the northern hemisphere they migrate south along the coasts to South America, southern Africa, Falkland Islands, India and Australasia except New Zealand.

We don't receive very many reports of Common Terns ringed in other countries. In fact, until last year, we only had 144 recoveries of Common Terns ringed abroad. Of these birds 50% came from Scandinavia.


Last month, ringers from Tees Ringing Group had some very good mist netting catches of terns. Their efforts paid off in the form of several exciting controls: one Common Tern from Finland, one from Sweden, one from Norway and one from Russia!

Common Tern MOSCOW TA64035, captured in Seal Sands in Teesmouth on the 3rd Sep 2010, is the first ever Common Tern from Russia and we can't wait to hear about the ringing details. We'll keep you posted.

Thank you to Allan Snape and Eric Wood for sharing this story and supplying the photographs.