Drought may mean bad news for Ash and Cookie

11 Aug 2015

The Po watershed and surrounding areas used by our Cuckoos on their migration are experiencing severe drought this year and we think this may be why Viator failed to successfully complete the desert crossing. We fear that Cookie and Ash have also been affected as it's been so long since we heard from their tags and we suspect we won't receive further signals.

Both Viator and Ash left the Po area and headed further east to Croatia, which is unusual, and could have been because of poor conditions. However, it's extremely likely that the part of Croatia, just over the Adriatic (55 miles form the Po delta), is also suffering from this regional drought.

Previously we've only ever lost two southeasterly migrating birds before completion of the Sahara crossing, both in 2012, and so far it looks like we've lost three this year. 



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