Linacre Goldcrest Control

Back in November I was ringing  at Linacre with members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group when we caught, amongst other birds, a male Goldcrest that had been ringed elsewhere (a control). The details of this bird were sent off to the BTO, and today we heard back from them.

The bird in question had originally been ringed in Kilnsea, Spurn, East Yorkshire on 29th October 2015, weighing 5.1g. We controlled the bird  at Linacre on 22nd November 2015, having traveled 116km in 24 days. When we weighed it, it weighed 5.4g, so it had obviously found some good food here in Derbyshire!

The fact that the bird had been originally ringed at Kilnsea in October makes me pretty sure that it is an immigrant bird that had migrated across the North Sea. The BTO wrote an interesting article on their Demog Blog back in October about this year's Goldcrest influx, and the number of countries they'd come from (see here). Here's a link to the BTO's Ringing Report for Goldcrest from 2014. Our bird will now add be added to the database.

Hopefully, we'll be able to control it again during the winter, or perhaps it'll be controlled back in Scandinavia next spring. I'll let you know if we get any more details.