We can see summer coming from
over 4,000 miles away as the first of BTO’s satellite-tracked Cuckoos begins to
head north.
One of BTO’s tracked Cuckoos,
known as PJ, was tagged in June 2016 in Suffolk and has since been providing
BTO with key knowledge about Cuckoo migration. PJ has now begun to move north,
travelling from Angola to Gabon on his way back to Britain, but this move is
only a fraction of the journey that he will have to make.
Last year PJ returned to Suffolk
on 29th April where he remained throughout his breeding season. On the 24th of
June he began his migration to Africa for the winter, taking a more central
route from the UK to his most southern point – Angola – avoiding the western
route where we have seen more fatalities in other tracked Cuckoos.
PJ is one of only two BTO Cuckoos
to have gone as far south as Angola; the information received from the tag
identifying this as a new wintering location. In the last 20 years the number
of Cuckoos in the UK has decreased by half. To find out why, BTO have been
satellite tracking a number of Cuckoos since 2011. This year we are tracking eight
different Cuckoos and following their migrations.
In 2009, the Cuckoo was added to
the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern. Although there was a lot of
knowledge on the Cuckoo’s breeding behaviour while in the UK, little was known
about their migratory behaviour. In order to get some insight into why there
may be a drop in numbers of the UK’s Cuckoos BTO decided to use satellite
tracking devices to understand their migration routes. We are using this
information to find out what is causing the Cuckoo numbers to fall.
