Going anywhere on a cold winter's day can be an effort. Perhaps that is why a pair of Turnstones have decided to hitch a lift on a ferry each day rather than fly across an estuary.
The birds, named Fred and Freda, seem unwilling to fly the three miles from their roost in Falmouth, Cornwall, to their feeding ground at St Mawes, even though they migrate long distances.
The non-paying passengers regularly join the first ferry from the Prince of Wales Pier, Falmouth, at 8.15am and reappear at St Mawes Harbour in time for the last return crossing at 3.45pm.John Brown, skipper of the Queen of Falmouth ferry, said. "If the winds are light they travel on the bow and if the weather is bad they come in and shelter on the top deck."
He added that he was "100 per cent certain" that the birds were the same ones. Turnstones (Arenari interpres) are mottled wading birds and breed in the Arctic.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said birds would do as little as they needed to do to obtain food.
A spokesman said: "They are probably using the ferry as a high-tide roost and popping off to feed when it is near to the rocky shoreline."
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