UK Cuckoo research

E39MSport

Heard about this on the BBC news this morning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/13559202

Half-cocked

I was lucky enought to see two cuckoos really close up in Co. Down at the weekend. Typically, I had left my camera at home:mad:

cscook

I heard that this morning, too, and hope that they will give some sort of ongoing update.
From the trail for Saving Species this week it sounds as if they will be - This week's Saving Species explores the mysteries of bird migration. Joanna Pinnock joined the British Trust for Ornithology on an early morning expedition to put a special transmitter on a Cuckoo. Many birds undertake extraordinary long distance migrations to find favourable conditions and resources for feeding and breeding. Very little is known about the Cuckoo's migration - and we'll be following the progress of the male being followed by the BTO biologists.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011p5nt
It's on air now but should be available on Listen Again.

whyulittle

Springwatch said they'd be doing something on the Cuckoo tonight, probably this.

E39MSport

I've heard one in the same spot for the past 2 seasons. Hope he's successful.

swifts need our help!

follow their migration here
http://www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking/meet-cuckoos

cscook

Sounds as if they only put the transmitters on just in time - I just heard on the radio now that one is already in France, and the one that Saving Species are following regularly is 180km further south than when they fitted the transmitter.

swifts need our help!

thats correct cscook. Check out their individual blogs in my link above

Mark

Red Actor

I know very little about birds but saw a bird begging from another bird in my back garden a couple of times recently. The bird supplying the food was maybe a starling and the begging bird was greyish and was bigger than the "parent". I remember from my school days being told that cuckoos would be fed by their foster parents even after they had got bigger than them. I had thought this was confined to the nest. I took a few snaps and will try to upload later. btw I live in Dublin.

swifts need our help!

simply a starling and this years fledged chick

swifts need our help!

starlings and chicks
http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?mode=search&sp=164078&rty=0&r=1&v=0&off=304948

Terrier

Great to see 2 of the Cuckoos have made it back to the UK!
http://www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking

Birdnuts

Unfortunatly another Cuckoo has died on route - poor fella had made it as far as Spain:(