The Prince

Late autumn sees the arrival of a tiny sea traveller. Scandinavian Goldcrests seeking refuge from snow and ice spend the winter in the temperate climate of the UK. It is one of the World’s smallest birds to regularly undertake sea crossings, a remarkable feat for a creature with a weight equivalence to a twenty pence coin. Old time fishermen knew them as Herring Spink on account of their habit of resting in the rigging of Herring drifters. The scientific name Regulus regulus means petty king or prince.

Migrant birds have an uncanny ability to locate their preferred habitat in foreign lands. This newly-arrived Prince Charming typically found the most easterly spruce in the UK in which to hunt tiny spiders after an overnight flight across the North Sea.