Cuckoo at Kessingland

It was a small team of just Colin Carter, Mike Swindells and myself that arrived at Kessingland Sewage Works on Tuesday morning. Nets were quickly erected in the scrub and whilst doing this Colin was sure that he saw a probable Sparrowhawk flying low over the scrub.

On the first or second round, again Colin thought he'd seen a Sparrowhawk flying across the scrub. He and I checked separate nets before returning, with our bagged up birds, to the ringing hut for processing.

Mike and I worked our way through the modest catch whilst Colin scribed for us. It came to the point where there were just two birds left and it was quite clear that Colin was saving the last bird particularly for Mike so it was a real surprise when he took the bag from Colin and carefully took out a splendid rufous juvenile Cuckoo. Colin knew that I'd ringed Cuckoo as I'd recently taken part in the BTO project to fit satellite tags to five Cuckoos caught in east Anglia with the aim to track their migration back to Africa. So it was a real pleasure to see Mike ring his first Cuckoo as well as having the opportunity to handle a juvenile bird as the Cuckoos fitted with the satellite tags were obviously all adults. More details can be found about the BTO Cuckoo project including the opportunity to sponsor a Cuckoo at www.bto.org/cuckoos.

3J Cuckoo

It's good to know that Cuckoos have in all likelihood successfully bred near the sewage works as a male had been 'singing' during many of the ringing sessions throughout May with a pair being seen chasing on several occasions.

Besides the Cuckoo the catch was dominated by juvenile passerines although all but two re-traps were adults. 

Totals - 23 New, (11) re-traps

Cuckoo - 1 3J

Dunnock - 2, (4)

Blackbird - 2

Cetti's Warbler - 1, (1)

Sedge Warbler - 1, (2)

Reed Warbler - (3)

Whitethroat - 8, (1)

Chiffchaff - 5, (1)

Great Tit - 1

Chaffinch - 1

Greenfinch - 1