Read an article recently about Cuckoos, can't remember where though. Probably either RSPB or the BTO.
It seems at least in part that the Cuckoos decline may in part be due to it's usual targets wising up. Researchers had long supposed that birds that were regularly parasitised by cuckoos learned over many generations to reject the eggs and indeed, if a cuckoo eggs or something looking like a cuckoo egg is placed in a nest of a bird that isn't normally targeted, the bird normally flips the egg out. What researchers have now noticed is an increase in the normally affected birds also flipping the eggs out.
OO7 - This is the first one I've heard for years. We used to hear them regularly in our village, up in the woods. We heard this one today in a forested area near us.
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Have only heard a cuckoo once since arriving back in 2003. Forester, do you hear them frequently? I'm envious.
Read an article recently about Cuckoos, can't remember where though. Probably either RSPB or the BTO.
It seems at least in part that the Cuckoos decline may in part be due to it's usual targets wising up. Researchers had long supposed that birds that were regularly parasitised by cuckoos learned over many generations to reject the eggs and indeed, if a cuckoo eggs or something looking like a cuckoo egg is placed in a nest of a bird that isn't normally targeted, the bird normally flips the egg out. What researchers have now noticed is an increase in the normally affected birds also flipping the eggs out.
I heard the Cuckoo this morning whilst having my morning cuppa on the patio. I heard it last year too.
OO7 - This is the first one I've heard for years. We used to hear them regularly in our village, up in the woods. We heard this one today in a forested area near us.
Very interesting Jimmy.