As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Sunday 14 July 2019

Bird found dead in Scotland was UK’s oldest Arctic tern



Published: 06:00Monday 08 July 2019
A seabird found dead on a nature reserve has been named the UK’s oldest ever recorded Arctic tern – beating the previous record by nearly two years.
First ringed as a chick at Buddon Ness in Angus, the tern was discovered at the Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) Forvie National Nature Reserve in Aberdeenshire.
The bird was found to be 32 years old, almost to the day, when it died, which is more than double the averagetern lifespan of around 13 years.
The previous record holder was a tern recaptured on the Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland, in 2010, just over 30 years after being ringed as a chick.
Arctic terns are among the most remarkable birds that visit Scottish shores. Their pole-to-pole migration is the longest known annual journey by any animal.
By moving continually between Arctic summer and the Antarctic summer, terns see more daylight than any other creature on earth.
Clocking up up to 44,000 miles each year, the record-breaking bird may have flown up to 1.408 million miles during its lifetime.
Daryl Short, Reserve Officer at Forvie, who found the deceased bird, said: “It’s incredible to think that the bird I found flew the equivalent of to the moon and back, and then back to the moon and some way home again.
“Arctic terns are amazing animals. The birds are currently protecting their chicks at Forvie and other nature reserves around the country and they’re not afraid to give you a bump on the back of the head if you get too close to their nests.

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