FLOCKING FOLK

In the middle of Hartlepool Folk Festival a flock of Goldcrest (see extra photo) had flown in from Scandinavia, closely followed by a flock of twitchers. Behind me, while all this birdy activity was going on, the local ukulele band was playing, followed by rapper and morris dancers and a shanty trio. Meanwhile the twitchers and the birds carried on regardless.

Many years ago I found an exhausted Goldcrest on the pavement (they're really tiny, and I can't imagine how they store up enough energy for that sort of migration). I took it home, gave it some sugar water and kept it warm for a few hours and happily it recovered and flew away.