Well done to that goldcrest!

On October 12th 2015 at Donna Nook the Mid-Lincs RG caught  a Goldcrest bearing a Danish ring.  When we eventually got the ringing details it had been caught in Jylland, Denmark on October 11th some 512km. away!!  Not bad for a bird weighing 5.1 grams!!

That can't be true can it? What was the quality of binoculars in1882 and how do you catch a Goldcrest? Lovely story though.
The Oxford Book of Bird Names (W.B. Lockwood)  states: "Woodcock Pilot: A Yorks. name for the Goldcrest, said to precede the returning Woodcock by a couple of days." That's were I got my info from.

Pete

Well, you asked for it, Pete - not a woodcock but the same principle.

Below is a letter published in an edition of The Zoologist journal (1882)

Sir -

The following fact was related to me by Mr. Wilson, the foreman on the South Gare Breakwater at the mouth of the Tees:

"I was at the end of the Gare on the morning of October 16, 1879, when I saw a short-eared owl come flopping across the sea. 

"As it got nearer, I saw something sitting between its shoulders, and wondered what it could be. 

"The owl came and lit on the gearing within ten yards of where I was standing, and, directly it came down, a little bird dropped off its back and flew along the Gare. 

"I signalled for a gun, but the owl saw me move and flew off across the river. 

"We followed the little bird and caught it, and I sent it away to be made into a feather for my daughter's hat."

"The little bird was a golden-crested wren." 

Wilson could have had no inducement in telling me other than the truth, and I have every reason to believe that what I have written is correct. 

It does not necessarily follow that the goldcrest came the whole way across the North Sea on the back of the owl, but I think it is quite possible that, feeling tired on the way, it might have availed itself of the assistance of its compagnon de voyage, and so be carried to shore.

Wilson further told me he had seen another wren on an owl's back about a fortnight after he saw the first one. 

T. H. Nelson 
Redcar

Did it ride on the back of a Woodcock?  That's what people used to think, and you can imagine why when you look at size of them.

Pete

RADIO tracking by Motus has provided fascinating information on the flight of goldcrest that made the trip from a small island off the Dutch Coast.

Weighing little more than a 20p coin, it completed the 400-mile journey in just under eight hours at an average speed of 27mph.

The bird had been tagged by a Dutch research team, led by Prof Sander Lagerveld of Wageningen University, which is studying the migration ecology of small passerines and bats. 

Also tagged on the same date, October 20, were several yellow-browed warblers but it is not known what happened to them nor to the goldcrest after it flew north over Spurn's Motus tracking tower.