My Cuckoo.

My sponsored Cuckoo, Selborne, is hanging around just south of the Sahara preparing for the crossing.

The latest bulletin from its tag reads:-

"We don’t expect Selborne to move very much for another two weeks or so but we are receiving lots of information from his tag. During the last week he has moved a few miles to the west and further into the Guinea Highlands."

I have had several enquiries recently as to where this bird originated - it was born in the New Forest and tagged in June 2016, age  unknown, but this will be its third return trip.

First Butterflies of the Year.

The beautifully warm, though unseasonal weather earlier this week,  has brought butterflies out of hibernation. The sulphurous yellow of the aptly named Brimstone has provided a high spot in my own garden and has been seen by others in the village. This is one of the few butterflies that overwinter as adults, emerging in the warmth of early spring. However if March is particularly cold they may not be able to return to a dormant state and thus perish. A small brownish butterfly wich dashed through my garden at great speed was probably a Small Tortoiseshell, also reported by others in the village.

FIRST SPRING FLOWERS.

I know it is only February but everything seems early this year, perhaps due to the very warm 2018 summer or even global warming.  The magnificent displays of Snowdrops, which are classified as garden escapes in the Dorset flora, are especially widespread. A few years ago they only occured in gardens and in the the churchyard in low numbers, but this year they are frequent on verges both in the village and away from it.  The first truly wild flower to bloom is the Butterbur.

The purple flower spikes appear in moist places before the very large leaves . Down the Weymouth Road by the sewage works has a good display, with the added bonus of a Kingfisher darting downstream when I took the photo above. They are also available on the road to Rew where the old mill leat occasionally overflows and keeps the ground moist. The  leaves will appear once the flowers have died down, and were used in past days to wrap butter, hence the name.

My sponsored Cuckoo, Selborne, is now on his way back to the New Forest. The latest bulletin reads:-



Selborne moves further west - 14 Feb 2019

Selborne didn’t hang around in Ghana. Having spent a week there he headed west again, 687km (426 miles) west into Guinea, overflying Ivory Coast on the way. Presumably he will stay here a little longer and prepare for his desert crossing. In 2016 he crossed the Sahara on 25 March and on 24 March in 2017.

My Cuckoo on its way back.

My sponsored Cuckoo,  Selborne, is now on its way back to the New Forset where it was born. Here is the latest report from the tracking satelite.

Selborne leading the way - 01 Feb 2019

Selborne is in West Africa! On the evening of 31 January Selborne's tag showed that he was in west southern Ghana. From the information we received it looks like he took the shortcut across the Gulf of Guinea, a sea crossing of 1,100km (689 miles). He is now 1,650km (1,000 miles) from his last location in Gabon and just under 5,000km (3,000 miles) from his New Forest breeding site, as the Cuckoo flies.

If you would like to follow Selborne's progress as he moves north to the perilous crossing of the Sahara, along with the other twelve tagged cuckoos, go to

 www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking