Summer is over – at least for one Welsh Cuckoo

29 Jun 2021 | No. 2021-31

A cuckoo named JAC, fitted with a satellite tag at World’s End, Llangollen, by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) this spring, has already left Wales and begun his long journey south.

Tagged on June 1, JAC joins eleven other Cuckoos on a mission to help save their kind. JAC is well into his 5,000 mile journey to the Congo rainforest, having left Denbighshire around 18 June. After spending five days just to the south of Worcester he is now on the other side of the English Channel and just to the east of the town of Le Havre, 290 miles from his Welsh tagging site.
 
Right now JAC is at the beginning of his migration which will continue for the next 2-3 months and see him spend the mid-winter months somewhere in or around the Congo basin, and maybe as far south as Angola.
 
Dr Chris Hewson, Lead Scientist on the project at the BTO, said, “The journey that this Cuckoo faces is long and hazardous and it might not make it to its wintering ground in the Congo rainforest, but we will be able to follow the journey and the route JAC takes to see how he fares. The information he will provide is vital to help our understanding of why Cuckoos in Wales are doing slightly better than those in England and how this might help us reverse the decline there.”
 
He added, “Anyone can follow JAC in near real time at www.bto.org/cuckoos and journey with him and all 11 of the Cuckoos as they move through mountain ranges and across seas and deserts and make their way to the mighty Congo basin.”

Contact Details
Paul Stancliffe
 (BTO Media Manager)
Mobile: 07585 440910
Email: press [at] bto.org (subject: News%20release%20enquiry)

Mike Toms (Head of Communications)
Mobile 07850 500791
Email: press [at] bto.org (subject: News%20release%20enquiry)

Images are available for use alongside this News Release. These can be downloaded from this link for which you will need to enter the password WCanorus202131 alternatively, please contact press [at] bto.org quoting reference 2021-31

Notes for editors

About the Cuckoo project
 - Climate change is causing the timings of the spring season to change and there is evidence that many migrant species are not advancing their arrival times sufficiently to track the earlier spring. There is also some suggestion from previous studies that there are constraints in the migration timing of species wintering in or beyond the humid zone in Africa. Read more here
 
BTO is the UK's leading bird research charity. A growing membership and up to 60,000 volunteer birdwatchers contribute to BTO's surveys, collecting information that underpins conservation action in the UK. BTO maintains a staff of 100 at its offices in Thetford, Stirling, Bangor (Wales) and Belfast (Northern Ireland), who analyse and publicise the results of surveys and projects. BTO's work is funded by BTO supporters, government, trusts, industry and conservation organisations. www.bto.org

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