Cuckoo laying

[Cragman]

I always take the first week into June off work to study the cuckoo. I have done for years. Managed to actually watch the female lay her egg at around 17-30 yesterday. What a great thrill it was. She layed into a meadow pipits and this is her forth season on this moor

 

[old keeper]

Brilliant!. Sadly, I've not heard or seen a cuckoo here for years.

 

[Dazb1967]

Heard a few this year but never managed to spot one

 

[Frank Homes]

Well done! It's strange isn't it, the cuckoo lays more eggs than any other British bird, between 25 and 30, which potentially means that 25-30 nests are completely predated yet it is celebrated rather than vilified.

 

[Cragman]

Well done! It's strange isn't it, the cuckoo lays more eggs than any other British bird, between 25 and 30, which potentially means that 25-30 nests are completely predated yet it is celebrated rather than vilified.

Frank, the cuckoo will lay a couple of clutches, so maybe 4 or 5 a clutch. Only twice has it been recorded that they lay 25. Once under manipulated conditions and the other naturally. Some will only lay one or two eggs. It’s a tight window for them to get all their eggs away, ie, hatch successfully, as they lay every other day so inevitably some will be layed late into nests where incubation has already started, plus desertion is high with pipit/cuckoos

 

[VIGILAIRE]

Heard 2 calling, one close and one further away a couple of evenings ago not long before dusk.

 

[BLUEROLL]

Brilliant!. Sadly, I've not heard or seen a cuckoo here for years.

There are generally 3 or 4 on Emsworthy Mire each year Mike.

 

[Rhodesianjess]

Well done! It's strange isn't it, the cuckoo lays more eggs than any other British bird, between 25 and 30, which potentially means that 25-30 nests are completely predated yet it is celebrated rather than vilified.

My old headkeeper would agree with you. He always shot them on sight and I asked him why. He replied if someone asked you in the pub how your wife and his children are doing, you'd punch him.
He had a point,nasty thing to do and then the little birds have to feed a baby that killed their own brood.
Before anyone says anything,old boy's been dead 30 years plus now,God rest him. Different times to today.

 

[Cragman]

Watched a pipit back to this this morning, another cuckoo egg, same female. Probably layed Saturday

 

[Bowland blades]

We have some here this year taking a nest , but there has been a gap of maybe 2-3 years with none previous to that they always had a nest or 2 . I have never seen the act of eviction of the previous occupants

 

[Cyres]

Remarkable pictures. Credit to you to be able to find the nest let alone photograh it. I haven't heard a cuckoo in S Glous for decades. Please will you update on incubation.
D

 

[Cragman]

Remarkable pictures. Credit to you to be able to find the nest let alone photograh it. I haven't heard a cuckoo in S Glous for decades. Please will you update on incubation.
D

Cyres, I watched her lay so finding it was the easy part. Not many get to see her lay

 

[jall55]

Cyres, I watched her lay so finding it was the easy part. Not many get to see her lay

Very interesting thread Cragman

When the cuckoo lays 2 in a nest does just 1 survive every time then ?

 

[Cragman]

Very interesting thread Cragman

When the cuckoo lays 2 in a nest does just 1 survive every time then ?

Yes normally but there are records of two surviving the tug o’ war in the nest. The urge to eject nest mates or eggs lessens after two days. The same cuckoo won’t normally lay two in the same nest unless she’s desperate and her intended target is lost or can’t be found. Two or three female cuckoos have been known to lay in the same nest

 

[jall55]

Yes normally but there are records of two surviving the tug o’ war in the nest. The urge to eject nest mates or eggs lessens after two days. The same cuckoo won’t normally lay two in the same nest unless she’s desperate and her intended target is lost or can’t be found. Two or three female cuckoos have been known to lay in the same nest

Brilliant - great info
Thank you

 

[foxinmad]

I've heard the first cuckoo calling the last couple of weeks on ground that I walk the dogs.
Never heard one for 15 plus years on this ground, only hearing one tho.
They are bloody hard to spot never mind photograph them laying, well done.
Keep us updated
Atb Martin.

 

[roebuck220]

Good photos, I was dragged along to a talk a few years ago to a talk by Richard Dawkins about evolution, he spent a good while talking about cuckoo's and said each cuckoo will only lay in the same type of birds nest that it was raised in itself. Would you be able to confirm this Cragman, as i've thought about it often and not convinced about it or how it could be proved, also could you tell me if all cuckoo eggs look the same or if they maybe vary, if what he said is true.

 

[devon deer stalker]

Brilliant!. Sadly, I've not heard or seen a cuckoo here for years.

Go up to Bellever you will see and hear them.

 

[Cragman]

Good photos, I was dragged along to a talk a few years ago to a talk by Richard Dawkins about evolution, he spent a good while talking about cuckoo's and said each cuckoo will only lay in the same type of birds nest that it was raised in itself. Would you be able to confirm this Cragman, as i've thought about it often and not convinced about it or how it could be proved, also could you tell me if all cuckoo eggs look the same or if they maybe vary, if what he said is true.

Difficult to prove that they parasitise the same bird that raised it. Young cuckoos have been tagged while in the nest but to my knowledge, none have been recorded as returning to where they were raised. It makes sense though to think that some kind of imprint was made on the young cuckoos while in the nest. The female cuckoo lays a similar marked egg all through her life, (but obviously different from other females) hence how I know this cuckoo is in her forth season

 

[Smellydog]

I never knew or imagined a Cuckoo would lay on the ground!
Thank you