Urban birds at Hull. 57. Goldcrest

The Goldcrest is the smallest bird in the UK. They are most often heard (if your hearing is good!) than seen, their calls and song are very high pitched, the latter sounding like a tiny violin, up and down for a while with a final flourish. It favours dense-canopy trees such as conifers and ivy-clad trees, where they feed on tiny insects and spiders, but in the winter it can be found more widely, often joining mixed flocks of tits, always active. Goldcrests have a greenish-grey back, warmer head and paler underneath, with white wing bars and black wing patch. The eyes are big and dark and the bill thin. Its most distinctive feature is its crest, a bright stripe lined with black, yellow in females and with a central orange stripe in males, often flat and thin, but open and erected when the bird is excited. Goldcrests have a very compact shape, without a discernible neck, and a short tail, but their legs are relatively long.

Goldcrest in hedgerow. The Avenues. 13 November 2021.

A singing Goldcrest. Pearson Park, 17 April 2016.

Fledgling Goldcrest at Pickering Park. Sculcoates, 4 June 2022. Note the lack of 'crest'.

Another fledgling at Pickering Park,12  June 2022.

Status and Distribution in Hull

Goldcrests are widely distributed in Hull, although they are never common. They can be seen year round, but in the autumn and winter, when numbers swell with migrants they are more obvious and widespread. It is amazing to think that they fly across the North Sea away from the cold continental winters. Mature yew trees in cemeteries are a favoured breeding spot, but they can also be found in garden and park conifers. Locations where breeding has been proven include Pickering Park rock garden, East Park Khyber Pass, Pearson Park and the cemeteries. It may seem surprising that they used to be quite rare in Hull, as described by Richard Broughton in his 'Birds of the Hull Area'.

Goldcrest being ringed at Spurn Bird Observatory, 31 October 2019.

Conservation and Management

The Goldcres is a Green Listed species. Although Goldcrest numbers drop after harsh winters, the population size has remained stable since the 90s. The species might benefit from climate warming and milder winters. The species is more abundant in urban environments than in other natural habitats (except woodland, especially conifer woodland). Fashion for gardening with conifers benefits the species in urban environments as do mature wood in churchyards and cemeteries. 

More information

BTO Bird Facts. Goldcrest.

Broughton, R.K. 2002. Birds of the Hull area.

Holderness: Patrington to Welwick circular

A bright morning, the cupola of the Holderness sky pale blue streaked with light clouds. I took bus X7 to Patrington and walked to Patrington Haven, then heading to the recently completed managed realignment around Welwick saltmarsh, which has been named The Outstrays. The place is unrecognisable as the flood bank has been moved inland, and what used to be fields is now establishing saltmarsh with Brent grazing, wideon splashing and Little Egrets looking for small fish and invertebrates in the new creeks and lagoons. 

A Jackdaw looks on from its chimney pot at Patrington.

Rook at Patrington.

One of two Curlews feeding on a field by Patrington.

Two Grey Wagtails and a PIed Wagtail were feeding on a roof at Patrington Haven

A Girdled Snail, several were out around a large ivy at Patrington Haven. This is an expanding species.

Grey Heron.

An interpretation panel at the Outstrays.

A large flock of Curlew feed on a grassy area recently created. I move onwards by the quarry of Haverfield, now vegetated with hawthorn and other trees. I ponder what was extracted from the quarry when the materials on some molehills remind me: this is a fossil dune which used to be the shore of the Humber before land was reclaimed and Sunk Island was annexed to the mainland. I decide I need to do this walk again in the summer, looks wonderful for bush-crickets and dragonflies and other insects. In fact, a bumblebee is now feeding on some late bramble flowers and a dronefly lands to bank in the sunshine. 

A buzzard mews and is chased by crows. As I emerge from the quarry there is a view of the new freshwater ponds. There are many birds including Teal, Shoveler and a Little Egret. A Shelduck lands. Then I spot a Kestrel that looks like has caught a big bird and is mantling it, there are distress calls and much flapping, but as I focus my binoculars I realise there are two Kestrels in a dogged fight, they separate and come together again. Their calls attract the attention of crows and of a Sparrowhawk. I watch them as they pursue each other and come to the ground again, one of them hovering over the other. One looks like a female, the other a young male.

Greylag Geese by Haverfield.

Fighting Kestrels.

Fighting Kestrels.

Sparrowhawk fly over.

Yellowhammer.

The footpath doesn't go on the flood wall, but behind it to avoid disturbance, but as I get to Sheep Trod Lake there is a new viewpoint with a screen with windows and seats. I take a seat and eat my lunch watching and listening to the Brent Geese just in front of me. The screen faces eastwards and the Spurn Lighthouse is visible in the distance behind the new marsh (top shot). Afterwards, I walk towards Welwick and then, given that traffic is quite light, I walk along the main road to Patrington to get my bus back.

The new screen.

Little Egret.

Brent.

Kestrel. A day of many kestrels!

Shelduck and Brent.

St Mary's, Welwick.

The gunpowder plot sculpture near Welwick. Two of the plotters were brothers that were born and grew up at by Plowlands Farm.

A walk along the river Hull to Victoria Dock

A mild, gloomy and breezy morning, I walk towards Wilmington Bridge, then south along the urban river Hull to the Humber. At Barmston drain, a Grey Wagtail drops to the recently cut bank and starts feeding. It will be the first of three today. Near the river, a Kestrel hovers briefly. I pop at the car park at the end of Fountain Road. A young Moorhen is negotiating the mud along the river and a group of gulls is bathing, amongst them an adult Great Black-back Gull, the first in the patch this year.

Kestrel.

Great Black-backed Gull.

River Hull, looking south

The Great Black-backed Gull in flight.

Black-headed Gull.

Moorhen.

I carry on as close to the river as I can and have a stop at Chapman Street bridge. There are Redshanks above and below the bridge, and two Pied Wagtails. Good number of Redshanks by the Museums Quarter.

River Hull, looking north from Chapman St bridge.

Pied Wagtail.

Street Art.

River Hull shipyard.

Redshank by the Barmston Drain outfall.

A drake Mallard takes a bath.

Dunnock at Great Union Street.

A new shipwreck at the museums quarter.

The second Grey Wagtail.

Sea Aster.

I have a nice surprise at Plimson Way, where a female Teal is feeding. Then another, with a Tufted Duck and the Half-tide basin. The big reward comes at the end, at Corinthiams Way, where a Black-tailed Godwit (number 103 for the 100 species in Hull challenge) is feeding with the wonky legged Curlew, both finding plenty of ragworms and not visibly squabbling with each other. The godwit goes to wash ragworms in little puddles before swallowing them, just like the redshanks.

Teal at Plimsol Way.

Tufted Duck, half tide basin.

The third Grey Wagtail at the half-tide basin.

Black-tailed Godwit.

The wonky legged Curlew. 

Another curlew by the Deep.

Black-headed Gull.