Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Artic Tern CE60645 reaches 30!

I first heardabout this on Radio 4 yesterday.

An Artic Tern ringed on the Farne Islands on 28 June, 1980 has been found alive and well on the Farnes.

It was first ringed by John Walton when he was a seasonal warden for the National Trust, he is now property manageer.

The Artic Tern typically lives 13 years so this is one old bird but the record is held by a bird rung in the USA which clocked up 34 years.

The Artic Tern has a 44,000 mile pole-to-pole migration, it is believed that detours mean they actually fly much more than this on migration. This bird would have flown well over a million miles!

2 comments:

Tricia Ryder said...

It never fails to amaze me what the wildlife kingdom is capable of!! I wonder if the human equivalent would stand up to these tremendous migratory miles so well!!

holdingmoments said...

I read about this Pete. Amazing to think it has survived all those years, on its perilous journeys.

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