It's been a long time since I've heard a cuckoo in these parts - until this morning, that is. I heard just a single call, but quite clearly, and still might have discounted it had someone else not also heard the cuckoo a few minutes before (something I only realised later).
There have been substantial declines in the numbers of a quite a few of our summer migrant species (perhaps of most of them, I haven't seen the figures). Cuckoos, however dubious aspects of their lifestyle might seem to us, are one of the delights of the British summer, so not to hear one is sad, especially when the countryside round here would seem eminently suitable.
Why the decline? Probably there are several factors, and the balance of causes will be different for different species. Cuckoos require a sufficient population of the 'host' species (dunnock, reed warbler, for example) to raise their parasitic chicks - and some of these species have certainly been declining in numbers, especially in the more open countryside that I imagine cuckoos might favour. The journey itself is a tremendous test for any migrant species, of course - not helped by climatic changes, nor for that matter by trigger-happy bird hunters. And the winter quarters of these birds may also be vulnerable - desertification, pollution, increased human disturbance, for example.
Well, I'm glad I've heard a cuckoo this year . . . and I hope I shall hear it again.
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