Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes

Thirty years ago up to 35,000 pairs were found in Britain and Ireland. Fifteen years later the number had dropped by 5,000 pairs.

Today it has dropped again by the same amount to 20,000 pairs at the very most. It may well be much less this year.

When I began my long-term monitoring of all breeding birds in West Dean Wood and also Kingley Vale 44 years ago, each of these two Sussex habitats comprising coppice woods and yew forest respectively contained two pairs of cuckoos each. I even recorded three singing males in these 40 acres of coppice woods 30 years ago.

Today there are no cuckoos in either place.

There are several problems facing cuckoos. One is that host parents such as meadow pipit and dunnock have also declined because of agricultural changes and the huge numbers of cats (seven million) in British gardens.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette April 16