Cuckoo.

I have just received sad news from the BTO concerning my sponsored Cuckoo, Selborne

"Dear John

We are sorry to report that we have sad news about Hampshire Cuckoo Selborne. We last heard from Selborne at midday on 4 April when he had just arrived in Spain. Unfortunately it looks as if he died overnight 4 - 5 April. His last location shows him over a southern ridge of the Sierra Morena mountains and it looks as if he was stopped suddenly in his tracks as he topped that slope. We will probably never know what happened to Selborne but it would appear most likely that he was either taken by an avian predator or succumbed to human hunters. Selborne was named by the Hampshire Ornithological Society when he was tagged in June 2016. Since then we have followed Selborne over two complete migration loops from Hampshire to his wintering grounds in Gabon. He was only 1,430 Km (888 miles) from completing his third migration loop. We are grateful to the Hampshire Ornithological Society and all of Selborne's sponsors for enabling the wonderful contribution that Selborne has made to advancing our understanding of Cuckoo migration."

BTO  plan to capture five of this year' new birds and attach transponders so that they can be tracked on their first journey to Africa. I will sponsor one and keep my fingers crossed that it survives.

The first Speckled Wood of the season in the garden today. Though a shade loving butterfly, frequently found in woods as its name implies, the males do come out from the more overgrown parts of my wildlife garden and bask in the sun like this one. With a season extending from April to October the Speckled Wood is seen for longer than most butterflies, but individuals are only likely to live about a week.

                                                           Speckled Wood

1

Early Emergent Butterflies.

My fears that the recent very cold snap will have killed off the butterflies that had emerged prematurley from their winter hibernation appear to have been unfounded as there is now a good list of butterflies recorded in and around the village in the last few days. Brimstone, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Comma, all of which have overwintered as adults, have appeared in the garden. Orange Tip and Holly Blue both overwinter in chrysalis form and have both been seen earlier this month. My older books give the time of emergence of both of  these as early May so they seem to be responding to the warming of climate change.
A walk down the Weymouth Relief Road cutting yesterday produced one Orange Tip, one Large White, a Brimstone and two Small Coppers, another species that is emerging three to four weeks earlier than it used to.

My sponsored Cuckoo, Selborne, hasn't been tracked since the 7th of April so is probably still lingering in central Spain.It has now been overtaken by two other Cuckoos who stand a good chance of being the first back to their breeding sites in this country.

My Cuckoo across Sahara

My sponsored Cuckoo, after lingering on the southern edge of the Sahara for a few weeks, has suddenly taken wing northwards.  The latest bulletin reads:-

Selborne has made it to Spain - 04 Apr 2019

A series of locations from Selborne's tag during the early hours of 3 April showed that he was in southern Spain, just to the west of Antequera. However, a set of poor locations received around breakfast on 4 April suggest that he had moved on and was 118km (73 miles) further north and east and close to the town of Lopera. Since leaving the Guinea Highlands on the evening of 31 March he has travelled 3,294km (2,047 miles). We will have to wait for high quality locations to confirm his most recent stopover and for it to update on his map.

He should be back in the New Forest very soon .

First Orange Tip.

The first Orange Tip of the year crossed the garden this morning, though too rapidly to get a photo. It was a female with dark grey wing tips, not a male which does have orange wing tips.