Updates from our Cuckoos

Having stopped briefly just south of the city of Tours, Cooper has continued south and by 10am this morning had reached the Occitanie region of southern France. He is now approximately 11 miles due east of the historic city of Cahors.Cooper has already covered 764 km (475 miles) since leaving England. 

Cuckoo Joe has already flown 1,105km (687 miles) south on the first leg of his migration. Having stopped briefly east of Paris, new signals received early this morning show that he is now in the hills above the French Riviera resort of Sainte-Maxime.

Cuckoo Cooper was the heaviest Cuckoo tagged in 2022 and one of the heaviest we have tagged during the lifetime of the project. Tipping the scales at 136 grams he is still well within the normal range for a male Cuckoo and a full 5 grams lighter than our heaviest ever bird, Karma, who was 141 grams. Cooper was tagged at Lucas Castle in the New Forest and named by the Cooper family who clubbed together to fund his tag. 

Bluey is one of two birds tagged on the same morning at the amazing Knepp Estate in West Sussex in May 2022. Cuckoo catcher in Chief Lee Barber was just finishing tagging Charles when he glanced up to see the ringing team running off towards the net. They soon returned with huge smiles and a full bird bag. This was the second Cuckoo to be tagged and was also a great weight. During the tagging of Bluey, the ringing team ran towards the nets again and then again. It turned out they had caught a smaller male and a female Cuckoo. Having a female Cuckoo around isn't desirable for tagging as they can distract the males, so we were particularly lucky to catch three male Cuckoos on that morning at Knepp. This was all done to the backdrop of the classic Knepp avifauna dawn chorus, Turtle Dove and Nightingale. 6 year old Cuckoo Sponsor Erin chose the name Bluey after her favourite TV character who is brave, cheeky and full of energy - let’s hope these traits take him far!

Charles is one of two birds tagged on the same morning at the amazing Knepp Estate in West Sussex in May 2022. The nets were set the night before, with a backdrop of calling Cuckoo. Before light everything was set and... there was a long wait. After an hour our hopes of catching a Knepp Cuckoo started to dwindle... but the calling Cuckoo, which was ever-present decided to investigate and flew directly into the middle of one of the nets. He turned out to be a great weight so was promptly tagged and released. Charles has been named by Ann Masters, who fondly remembers competing with her husband each year to see who heard the first Cuckoo, and hopes that work such as this tracking project will continue to inspire a love of nature for future generations. Charles is also the first name of the owner and founder of the Knepp Wildland Project, Sir Charles (Charlie) Burrell.

Grove II is one of two birds tagged in Worcestershire in the spring of 2022, along with Ripple. They join our third Worcs Cuckoo Calypso, tagged in 2021. Like Calypso, Grove II was tagged at Wild Goose Nature Reserve in Worcestershire. We set the nets in the exact same configuration that we used for Calypso. It was at the end of the day, with showers abating and when the conditions were right we turned on the MP3 system. Very little happened but we could hear a Cuckoo on the other side of the reserve... but he couldn't hear the MP3. I took a spare system half way between him and our nets. On playing he flew from his perch towards the nets and then heard the calls and flew straight into the net. He was then tagged in the comfort of a Wild Goose training area room and released over the fields with rare breed sheep, during a lovely sunset. It’ll be interesting to see how similar Calypso and Grove II’s travels are. Grove II’s tag was generously funded by an anonymous donor after the area near their home where they reliably hear a Cuckoo each year.

Ripple is one of two birds tagged in Worcestershire in the spring of 2022, along with Grove II. They join our third Worcs Cuckoo Calypso, tagged in 2021. Ripple has an interesting history. Initially ringed on 16/05/2020 at Strensham by Stuart Brown during a session to see if Cuckoo catching was possible. Catching was attempted again at Strensham in 2021 and was successful. Ripple was caught on 13/05/2021 but was just too light for tagging (subsequently we found this was likely due to it being a cold spring and a lack of food). On 17/05/2022 he was caught again but in a fantastic condition so tagged. Another male was also present as it chased Ripple into the net and unfortunately avoided the net himself. Ripple’s tag was generously funded by Severn Trent Water’s Boost for Biodiversity fund and he was named after a local village. We are grateful to Severn Trent Water and BTO supporters Stuart Brown and Ian Duncan for making it possible to tag our Worcs Cuckoo group.

Joe is one of two Cuckoos tagged at Cranwich in Norfolk in 2022, the other being JD. After tagging JD, we moved to Cranwich Heath. We placed a triangle of nets around a lone bush and placed the decoy and mp3 playing in the middle. After setting the nets, turning on the MP3 and making a cup of tea Joe was heard calling from the edge of the heath. He soon flew into the area and perched on a dead branch calling and displaying to the fake female. He then flew inside the triangle of nets, scared a Linnet and promptly flew into the net, with the Linnet. Both were promptly extracted and the Cuckoo was tagged. We have targeted birds from this area to boost our sample of East Anglian birds. Cranwich Heath is approximately 10 miles north of BTO HQ at Thetford. JD and Joe will be the sixth and seventh Cuckoos to be tracked from this area, following Attenborough, Tennyson, Thomas, Sylvester and Stanley. These birds have typically taken the easterly route south to Africa. Joe was named by tag funder Sarianne Durie who recalls that she and her late husband Joe much enjoyed the cuckoos’ arrival, calling and displaying each spring when they lived by the River Leach.  Initially there would be several birds, as time when by there were fewer and fewer – which saddened them greatly.

JD was ringed at Cranwich in Norfolk, a site where BTO staff and volunteers try to monitor all the Reed warblers, JD's host species, so quite a few of his progeny will be ringed and monitored. We placed a net along the track, and after a short wait he came flying down the track and got caught in the net. On a CES ringing session on 11/06/2022 he was seen flying around the netting area calling to the female, so has been a regular at Cranwich since being tagged.We have targeted birds from this area to boost our sample of East Anglian birds. Cranwich Heath is approximately 10 miles north of BTO HQ at Thetford. JD and Joe will be the sixth and seventh Cuckoos to be tracked from this area, following Attenborough, Tennyson, Thomas, Sylvester and Stanley. These birds have typically taken the easterly route south to Africa. JD was named by his tag funder John Davis.

We are very sad to report that the time has finally come to bid farewell to our old friend PJ, the longest lived of our satellite tagged Cuckoos to date. PJ was tagged in the King's Forest in Suffolk on Tuesday 7 June, 2016 when he was already a second year bird (i.e. hatched in 2015). He arrived back in the UK on 24th April this year but there have been no transmissions from his tag since 6th May when he was still at his breeding grounds in the King's Forest. Tag failures are rare in the UK, where the tags are not exposed to such harsh conditions as when the birds are on migration, so we must assume that PJ has reached the end of his life. He was at least seven years old when he arrived in the King’s Forest this spring, only one year short of the longevity record for a wild UK Cuckoo.

As well as being the first tagged Cuckoo to use both the Spanish and Italian routes to the wintering grounds in the Congo Basin, PJ completed six epic tracked migrations to Africa and back. This is the greatest number of migratory journeys of any tagged Cuckoo. When he returned to the UK in April this year he had over 60,000 miles under his wing.

Although PJ may be gone, his legacy - six years of location data - lives on, and his contribution to our understanding of Cuckoo migration will continue to inform BTO’s research. PJ built on the contributions of all the tagged Cuckoos before him, just as this year’s cohort will build on the knowledge we gained from PJ - a body of research which we hope will help reverse the sad decline seen in the UK Cuckoo population.

We are grateful for the data and the inspiration that PJ has given us and hope that you too have enjoyed following him. If you'd like to share any reflections on PJ's amazing story we would love to hear them.