The wonders of the web (and bird migration)

Today we snuck out for a walk on the beach at the north end of South Uist fighting all the time against 65 mph winds On the beach was a flock of Sanderlings that were understandably reluctant to fly. Two of them were colour ringed and I got an image of both - this was the better image of the two. You can zoom in on the image to pick up two coloured rings on each leg.
Then a quick e-mail to Jeroen Reneerke who is a Dutchman who colour rings Sanderling and I have a potted history of both the birds. This own was ringed in Iceland in May 2011 - probably having bred in the High Arctic of Greenland - and seen there seven times in Iceland before, on 31st August of that year, being seen on a beach in Brittany. Then in both Springs of 2012 and 2013 it was seen just around the corner on South Uist before I saw it today.
And all this information came back to me within an hour of sending it in.
And now you are getting it an hour later! Gone are the days of letters and sae - who can even remember this once-common acronym?!