Early layers blamed for cuckoo's decline

Swifts are now screaming overhead, there are also more sightings of hobby, and plenty of grasshopper warblers reeling – from 12 different locations at the Fairburn Ings reserve near Castleford.

But there are still worrying declines in the fortunes of two much-loved summer visitors, the cuckoo and the turtle dove.

The male cuckoo's unmistakable song ringing out on a May morning is one of the symbols that summer has really arrived.

But it has been heard less frequently over the past 15 years, with more than half the cuckoo population lost in England and a third in Wales. A once widespread bird is now reduced to between 10,000 and 20,000 pairs in the whole of the UK.

There are various theories as to why this is happening. One is that some of the species in whose nests thefemale cuckoo lays her egg are now laying earlier, before her arrival back from Africa.

She is therefore deprived of the chance to plant an egg in the unsuspecting host's nest.

The gentle purring calls of turtle doves are now missing from many places where they were once common with an 85 per cent drop in the population between 1967 and 2006.

They feed on weed seeds and the lack of weeds along with spilt grain on farmland and the loss of overgrown hedgerows for them to nest in are cited as reasons for their decline. There are eight times fewer turtle doves than in the mid 1980s.

But turtle doves continue to disappear from farmland that is now managed with wildlife in mind and I know of two sites where turtle doves were to be found until five years ago. Both places are unchanged but the turtle doves have gone.

It seems increasingly likely that problems in the wintering areas south of the Sahara are the cause of these declines along with those of other birds such as wood warblers.

The British Trust for Ornithology, RSPB, Ghana Wildlife Society and Naturama have started a three-year project Out of Africa to try and find out if this is the case.

Sites in Ghana and Burkino Faso which provide a wide range of different habitats are being monitored from October until March to see how much the loss of virgin scrub and forest to human development and lack of waterareis affecting the birds' ability to fatten up for their long migrations north and alsotheir survival rate during the winter.

To find out more about the project's work and to donate visit the Out of Africa site- bto.org/appeals/a2b

A number of red-rumped swallows, overshoots from around the Mediterranean, were seen over the Bank Holiday with three at Flamborough and singles inland at Rother Valley Country Park, South Yorkshire and Wheldrake Ings.

Arctic terns were moving through the region heading for breeding sites further north, with 16 over the RSPB's Saltholme Pools reserve while there were two little gulls at the society's Old Moor reserve in South Yorkshire.

Waders included two pectoral sandpipers seen at the North Cave wetlands in East Yorkshire, while wood sandpipers werepresent at several reserves.

Trips of dotterels were starting to be seen at traditional sites, with 15 near the summit of Ingleborough while two were in a field at West Carlton and another two at Ellerton in East Yorkshire.

Increasing numbers of Manx shearwaters were being seen along the Yorkshire coast while a Cory's shearwater was off Spurn. A hawfinch visited the feeding station at the Bempton Cliffs reserve.

The RSPB's gannet and puffin cruises from Bridlington Harbourto Bempton Cliffs are now underway on most weekends until July 10. For full details and to book ring 01262 850959.

[email protected]

CW 8/5/10