My Cuckoo.

   The latest bulletin from BTO.on  Cuach Torc

Dear John,

Earlier this week I was thrilled to receive an email from a recently retired BTO colleague letting me know that he had a Cuckoo singing at the bottom of his garden in Portugal. While we may have a little while to wait before the first Cuckoos arrive back in Britain and Ireland, it certainly adds to the anticipation and excitement.

When we last updated you, Worcestershire Cuckoo Trent had become the first of our tagged birds to make the move into west Africa. Through our tracking work we have established that this move to countries such as Ivory Coast and Guinea at this time of year is a very important part of the spring migration of our Cuckoos. Here they will spend a few weeks capitalising on the rich abundance of invertebrate life released by the rains to put on fat and muscle for the migration ahead. We have shown that the timing of departure from West Africa for the northward crossing of the Sahara is by far the most important determinant of timing of arrival to the breeding grounds. Our work has also shown that Cuckoos are struggling to build up their fat reserves quickly enough to allow them to migrate north in time to match the earlier arrival of spring here in the UK.

Irish Cuckoo Cuach Torc remains in northern Congo while Cuach Cores is towards the eastern reaches of  the Congo Basin of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We'll hopefully see these two heading west any day now.

We should see the first of our Cuckoos crossing the Sahara in the next couple of weeks, but which will it be? 

Our plans for tagging more Cuckoos in 2024 are coming together well and we are looking forward to introducing you to our new Cuckoos in early June.

I hope you've enjoyed this update, stay tuned for the next instalment! In the meantime, you can see the latest positions of all our tagged birds by visiting the Cuckoo tracking map.

Thanks for your support and all best wishes,

Ieuan

Dr Ieuan Evans

Director of Engagement

Unsubscribe from Cuckoo updates   Update your contact preferences here. If you don't have a BTO account set up, then you can easily do so to control how we contact you. You can change this at any time.