‘Bid to find out why decline in cuckoos’ read the headline in the Dorset Echo on June 12.
Well here are a few reasons.
Firstly, cuckoos are mainly insectivorous, their main food item being caterpillars, especially the woolly bear type (when was the last time you saw one of those?).
Caterpillars, along with other insects, have been killed off by spraying crops and suchlike with insecticides and pesticides. No food - no cuckoos?
Secondly, there is a distinct reduction of the cuckoo’s ‘host’ species, especially meadow pipits.
Meadows and wasteland have either been ploughed up or built upon so pipits and other small insectivorous birds have lost their nesting places and deprived of insects.
Thirdly, whilst wintering in Africa, cuckoos are often shot for the pot by hunters providing food for their large families. Any bird is fair game when trying to fill hungry bellies.
Lastly, cuckoos, along with many other migratory birds, have to ‘run the gauntlet’ when flying over Mediterranean countries such as Malta for no good reason other than ‘if it flies, shoot it’.
These are a few reasons for the cuckoos demise and I dare say there are others which the BTO survey will uncover.
What a real shame that most of today’s young generation will never see or hear this iconic bird.
Colin Fountain
Moreton
Dorchester
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