Wee three kings

THE tiny goldcrest has accrued several names over time. Unable to comprehend that such a small bird could cross the North Sea unaided when migrating from Scandinavia and northern Europe, medieval ornithologists supposed that it hitched a lift on the backs of sturdier flyers and dubbed it the ‘woodcock pilot’. To East Anglian fishermen, in whose rigging it often paused for a rest before continuing, it was the ‘herring spink’ or ‘lot-o’erseas’. Folk along the east coast have found the arriving goldcrest too exhausted to be afraid of people. There have been