A Record Year for Goldcrest

Just been looking at the Groups ringing totals for the year. Goldcrest at 531 new birds  had the best year ever. The graph below shows our ringing totals since 1992. Only in 2005 did we come any where near this years total.  Of the 531ringed 515 were ringed in late summer and autumn and probably reflects the large numbers that were reported on the east coast this last autumn. A recovery received today of one ringed at Gibraltar Point Lincolnshire on 11 October and caught at Middleton 21 days later certainly proves the link. Another recovery received  earlier was even quicker. It was ringed at Whitby on the Yorkshire coast on 12 October and recaptured at Leighton Moss 11 days later.
Amazing that these tiny birds  can  fly across the North Sea from Scandinavia  as two of our previous recoveries from Norway and Denmark prove.