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.

Wintering Rosefinch

Orfordness in Suffolk often seems to generate some interesting 'Demog Blog' stories, including Norwegian colour-ringed Little Stint, Finnish-ringed Turnstone, German-ringed Avocet, Polish-ringed Kingfisher and Norwegian-ringed Dunnock.

Their most recent claim to fame passed across my desk at the BTO (well in my remote office in Cornwall) recently, in the shape of a Common Rosefinch ringed on Orfordness on 20th October 2012 (photo below courtesy of David Crawshaw). This was the second record for the site and was caught in a short net at the same time as seven Lesser Redpoll and a Yellow-browed Warbler in what was a busy day at the site. Remarkably, it was then recaught in northern Belgium (207km from Orfordness) on the very unseasonable dates of 1st and 4th December! Winter records of Common Rosefinch in western Europe are few and far between, so why this bird chose to winter in Belgium is a mystery, but seemed to be doing OK, weighing more than it did when first ringed.

This is only the second BTO-ringed Common Rosefinch to be found abroad. The first was a bird ringed at Fair Isle Bird Observatory recaught two weeks later on the Faeroes, and to be honest most of the records of foreign-ringed birds have been in the Northern Isles. In fact, 1990 was a bit of a purple (or scarlet) patch at North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory (Orkney), with a German-ringed bird recaught there in June 1990 and a Norwegian-ringed bird recaught there in September 1990, just eight days after ringing! The only other was a Swedish colour-ringed bird seen on Fair Isle in September 2011, just nine days after ringing.

Interestingly, within the UK, there are just two movements: a bird from Fair Isle to Spurn Bird Observatory (17 days) and from Isle of May Bird Observatory to Orkney (eight days). Bit of a Bird Obs theme developing as well...

Bumper Little Stint year

With a latin name meaning a small grey waterside bird, the Little Stint is a gem among waders, especially in its breeding plumage.

We have had very few recoveries of this species in the history of the ringing scheme but things are now picking up. Up to 2011 we have had only had 16 reports of Little Stint ringed abroad and found in the UK and Ireland. Of these the majority (11 birds) were ringed in Norway, these were reported in the 1940s (1), 1960s (1), 1970s (2), 1980s (4), 1990's (2), 2000s (1).

Little Stint feeding - Dave Crawshaw

Due to a new colour ringing project in Norway, we have had a grand total of 7 sightings this year! Mike Marsh has let us know that he saw a group of 5 Little Stint at Orfordness, Suffolk. One of these was colour ringed and stayed around for a couple of days.This bird had only been ringed a mere 14 days previously and covered a distance of 1188km.

Little Stint winter in Africa, around the Indian Ocean and as far south as South Africa. There are also variable numbers in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf, so it had a little further to go.


View Little Stint in a larger map

Thanks to Mike Marsh for letting us know.

Foreign Avocet still breeding in Suffolk

Avocet movements are very interesting to monitor as there as been quite a bit of exchange between birds on the continent and the UK. Mike Marsh saw the colour ringed bird (below) at Orfordness, Suffolk wearing only a yellow colour ring and a metal ring. He tried to trace this bird from the colour rings but to no avail. He later managed to read the ring number which was easily traceable.


Avocet 5239200 was ringed as a chick in the Beltringharder Koog, on the German north sea coast on 20th June 1992, making this bird 18 years old and a possible longevity record! This bird had also been colour ringed but had since lost a black, red and green ring, which is why he couldn't trace the bird via the colour rings.

After being seen several times around its natal site up to the 14th July 1992 it was next seen in May and June 1996 at Minsmere and now, thanks to Mike Marsh at Orfordness, Suffolk where it has one small chick to look after. Unfortunately we don't know where it spent the intervening 14 years.


View Avocet leaves home in a larger map

Thanks to Mike Marsh for letting us know about this bird and also to David Crawshaw for the photo.