Completely Cuckoo

As recently promised, today’s post is wholly devoted to images of and information about that fascinating species Cuckoo – Cuculus canorus. The photographs are those of a juvenile bird near Nateby on 17th August.

Cuckoo - juvenile

Below is a current summary of the status of the Cuckoo in the UK, reproduced from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) website.

“The Common Bird Census (CBC)/Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) trend shows Cuckoo abundance to have been in decline since the early 1980s. The species was moved in 2002 from the green to the amber list, and in the latest review met red-list criteria. The sensitivity of CBC to change in this species may have been relatively low, mainly because Cuckoo territories were typically larger than census plots. The BBS shows a continuing strong decline in England and Wales, but not in Scotland. Cuckoo numbers may have fallen because the populations of some key host species, such as Dunnock and Meadow Pipit have declined. Decreases among certain British moths may have reduced food supplies for returning adults, and the species may also be suffering difficulties on migration or in winter. Strong variation in Cuckoo population trends between habitats may reflect regional differences in the main hosts and differing trends in Cuckoo breeding success among those host species: Cuckoos increased significantly during 1994–2006 in lowland semi-natural grass, heath and bog but decreased in almost all other habitat types. Due to climate-induced earlier breeding in recent decades, Dunnock nests have become less available to Cuckoos and those of Reed Warblers more so: this may explain a concurrent increase in the rate of parasitism of Reed Warbler nests.

Cuckoo - juvenile

Cuckoo - juvenile

The Cuckoo’s habits and parasitic way of rearing its young, so unlike that of any other British bird, is well known and documented so I will not recount it again, but in an old book of mine there is a fascinating account of how the Cuckoo was a puzzle to earlier naturalists. From the days of Aristotle to those of Pliny (AD25 – AD75) the Cuckoo was supposed to undergo a metamorphosis twice a year, appearing during the summer months as a Cuckoo. In “Naturalis Historia” Pliny wrote “a bird of the hawk kind, though destitute of curved talons and hooked beak, and having the bill of a Pigeon; should it chance to appear simultaneously with a Hawk it is devoured, being the sole example of a bird being killed by one of its own kind. In winter it changes into a Merlin, but reappears in spring in its own form, but with an altered voice, lays a single egg in the nest of some other bird, generally a Pigeon, declining to rear its own young because it knows itself to be a common object of hostility among all birds, and that its brood is in consequence unsafe unless it practices a deception. The young Cuckoo being naturally greedy monopolises the food brought to the nest by the foster parents and thus grows fat and sleek, and so excites its dam with admiration of her lovely offspring, that she first neglects her own chicks, then suffers them to be devoured before her eyes, and finally falls victim herself to his voracious appetite”.

Cuckoo - juvenile

So those part time philosopher and naturalist guys without binoculars and field guides were slightly off the mark with their theories about the remarkable Cuckoo, but as we now realise there is a glimmer of truth. We have to remember that in those days no one could comprehend migration or the fact that thousands of miles away in a southerly direction lay hot countries where a Cuckoo could while away the winter months and then return to Europe the following spring.

But it sounds like the birders of that period had certainly weighed up the Cuckoo’s eating habits, its preference for large caterpillars, often the hairy ones rejected by other birds. They locate the caterpillars by perching motionless and often upright on a vantage point from where they scan the surroundings, alert to any movement within yards.

Cuckoo - juvenile

Cuckoo -juvenile

Cuckoo - juvenile

Cuckoo - juvenile

With its peculiar life style a Cuckoo may not be not the most endearing of birds but it is certainly one of the most attractive, and I hope I see one next year, and the year after, and……

Cuckoo - juvenile

Read more about the Cuckoo at the BTO's website here.

Slightly Cuckoo

Sue thinks I’m daft, slightly cuckoo even for spending so much time birding and ringing, even in the most off-putting weather. But occasionally the unpromising days turn out to be actually not bad, just like this afternoon when I took a trip out Nateby way after the morning rain had cleared even though the cloud remained and the stiff breeze still blew from the west.

After many years of carefully nurturing the farmer, I am ok to take my car down his track, a ploy that worked well when I found what I thought to be the Cuckoo of last week, some way off from the original spot. The Cuckoo didn’t take too much notice of the car halfway through the field gate, enabling me to get a few more pictures

Cuckoo
Cuckoo
Cuckoo

Cuckoo
After a few minutes I realised there was actually not one but two Cuckoos, having a bit of a Barney over possession of the good feeding they had found, but keeping a respectable distance from each other until their paths crossed. The few distant shots below are the best I could get of their squabbles where they appeared to employ their red juvenile gapes in threat posturing. It’s rare enough to see a single Cuckoo nowadays so I was doubly lucky to witness this behaviour.

Cuckoo
Cuckoo

After a while I left the Cuckoos, parked up the car out of tractor’s harm and took a walk where things got even better when a Swallow hunting Hobby came close by. Not unusually it was the Swallows that drew attention to the raptor with their twittering alarm calls; I watched as the Hobby continued towards Nateby village, disrupting more Swallows feeding around the next farm buildings before it was lost to view.

Hobby

Following those events it was hard to concentrate or better the day but I also saw 6 Whitethroats, 3 Buzzards, 1 Kestrel and 80+ Swallows, then 6 Swift heading south.

Buzzard
On my way home I promised Farmer Philip a picture of the Cuckoo if there was a reasonable one. Philip hadn’t seen or heard a Cuckoo on his land for several years.

Cuckoo
Cuckoo

Late Lasagne

It was Saturday evening but even Sue’s Legendary Lasagne washed down by a glass or two of grapey Shiraz would have to wait a while; Will and I had hastily arranged a spot of ringing, a session which by 930pm proved just as fruitful as Aussie’s best, with a handy total of birds ringed plus two or three scarcities seen.

Before we even put up nets the evening started on a real high with sight of a Cuckoo, a species now as rare as hen’s teeth here in Lancashire, and a bird which has become something of a major target for year listers. So infrequent are Cuckoos that after both mine and Will’s many, many hours of local birding and ringing this year the single juvenile Cuckoo represented our first and possibly our last local sighting of the year.

Cuckoo

After feeding close by for a short while the Cuckoo flew off towards the strip of woodland where we originally saw it. We then turned our attention to ringing and the hoped for Goldfinches from the nearby roost. In all we caught 24 birds, 21 new and 3 recaptures which included several more juvenile Goldfinch and more Sylvia warblers. New captures; 10 Goldfinch, 4 Whitethroat, 3 Willow Warbler and 1 each of Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Chaffinch and Great Tit. Recaptures: singles of Willow Warbler, Goldfinch and Whitethroat.

Blackcap - Sylvia atricapilla
Garden Warbler - Sylvia borin
Whitethroat - Sylvia communis
Willow Warbler - juvenile
Chaffinch

The numbers of Goldfinch going to roost had fallen slightly, with perhaps 80/90 birds overall, so our catch of 10 new ones proved worthwhile. Once again our captures were all juvenile birds, leading us to speculate once more that this is indeed a roost of juveniles only.

Goldfinch - juvenile

As we watched between net rounds we clocked up 2 more scarce species with a single Marsh Harrier heading off to roost in a distant barley field, and then brief glimpses of 3 Grey Partridge, an event which set off a discussion on the rarity value of the two species. We came to the sad conclusion that whilst Marsh Harrier is now fairly common following its population expansion of the past twenty years it still has adequate prestige to set the pagers buzzing; conversely the once common, but now threatened with local extinction Grey Partridge can probably never achieve such heights of birding fame.

Grey Partridge

Swallows have proved very interesting this last week. We counted approximately 700/900 birds during the course of the evening as they flew in a south easterly direction towards a local roost, probably in the extensive and now quickly growing maize fields. The number was way down on our count of several thousand Swallows a few nights ago, a period during which the massive Fleetwood roost also dispersed. So it appears that huge numbers of Swallows have imperceptibly headed south in the last week or so: equally there are many more to come from the north and/or east and Swallow roosts are dynamic, ever changing in composition, with the result that roost numbers will almost certainly build up again in the coming weeks.

Swallow

Other birds seen in our few hours: 25 Linnet, 1 Corn Bunting, 1 Tawny Owl, 2 Buzzard, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 30 Tree Sparrow and 40 House Sparrow.

The lasagne? Yes it lived up to its mythical status, but this ringing and birding lark certainly works up a thirst and that bottle of plonk proved a life-saver.

Where’s My Better Half?

The usual early start today, but what a beautiful sunrise. It was a fine morning to be up and about.

Misty Sunrise
Will and I asked the leading question not of ourselves but of the 3 Whitethroats and 4 Willow Warblers we caught this morning when they all turned out to be males. This year we have yet to catch a female Willow Warbler or Whitethroat in our ringing plot on Rawcliffe Moss. Whitethroats do arrive later than Willow Warblers, so we are not too concerned there, but it looks as though female Willow Warblers haven’t arrived yet to claim a summer partner. A four hour ringing session should have shown up any females present.

There was an awful lot of song from the plantation, mainly Common Whitethroats who also indulged in some chasing around of potential territories. We counted at least 10 singing males near us with others further down the moss. It was a similar tale with the Willow Warblers, when the four we caught were retraps from not only previous years but had also previous ringing sessions this year. Other birds netted today were 2 Lesser Redpoll and a Blackbird, so the redpoll migration continued but our overall count of this species was of 8 or 10 only chattering high overhead and flying north.

Willow Warbler
Whitethroat
Lesser Redpoll
The earlier morning started on a bird high when I drove up the moss track to see a Barn Owl sitting in a glassless window frame of a half completed house extension. What a photo opportunity, just begging for a suitable caption, but as I slowed to look closer and pick up the ever ready camera, the owl turned its back on me and dropped down back into the half completed shell of the room. But the one below may be the same bird from weeks ago in the same vicinity.

Barn Owl
Just as we completed putting up mist nets, we had both picked up on a Common Cuckoo calling from up near the conifers. It called a couple of times before going quiet and we guessed it headed quickly north. Now there is a misnomer, “Common Cuckoo”, maybe we should now rename the species “Seriously Threatened Cuckoo”?

The Conifers
Cuckoo
Just to the left of the conifers a party of Greenland Wheatears again stood out as dots of colour on the black peat canvas of the recently drilled field, with a Kestrel just sat there for a while after we supposed a failed attempt at a ground morsel; as we walked around the edge of the field it took off back to higher elevations but the Wheatears continued patrolling the soil way out of our reach today.

Other birds seen today included the resident Buzzard in the same old tree, Corn Buntings, Linnets, Reed Buntings and Goldfinches, but we both remarked separately on the apparent lack of Skylark song. Is it the effect of the cold winter and another species to worry over in the coming weeks?

I caught a Dunnock in the garden today. Male and female Dunnocks are difficult to tell apart, except in the breeding season. So I looked carefully at this bird in the parts that matter and I could tell it had clearly found a better half (or maybe more than one, as Dunnocks do), unlike the lonesome warblers on the moss singing for sight of a mate.

Adult Male Dunnock