Winged pair put feet up on ferry

The ferry runs between St Mawes and Falmouth

A pair of birds have been hitching rides on a Cornish ferry to save themselves a three-mile commute to their feeding grounds.

The turnstones, which usually migrate thousands of miles across the world, regularly hop on the 0830 sailing from Falmouth to St Mawes.

They stay for the day and then take the 1615 crossing back.

Skipper John Brown, who has named the pair Fred and Freda, says the birds first turned up about six years ago.

Spring migration

"We had one bird that came on and it just started walking around the deck, just picking up bits and pieces," he said.

"We never took a lot of attention to it really.

"Then we thought, well we'd feed it a little bit, all of a sudden it just stayed with us."

Mr Brown says the birds are so fond of him, if he is captaining another vessel they come and find him.

Turnstones are found on coastlines across the world. Those in Britain migrate each spring to Scandinavia, Greenland or Canada to breed.