Cuc - koo! Cuc - koo!
It all started like a
treasure hunt. First we (Me, Roine and Mirja) had to travel down south to Weppa
Farms, Agenebode on 18 May, with the hope of intercepting the African Cuckoos
on their way up North. As it turned out, we were too late. Only the Red-chested
Cuckoo, Diederic's Cuckoo, Leveillant's Cuckoo and Black Cuckoo were on ground
to welcome us. After combing the lenght and breadth of the farm for 3 days, we
decided to go back north on 22 May. At Abuja, we picked up Kasper before
continuing the journey to Jos.
May 24: The morning was a
hopeful one; the cuckoo trapping team was complete and our faces were beaming
with excitement of the task ahead of us; CATCH 5 or 7 AFRICAN CUCKOOS! However,
our first attempt within the Amurum Forest Reserve did not yield any result. We
walked around for most part of the day, listening for cuckoos calling far away
then walking in the direction of the calls. The day ended without any success.
May 25: We decided to
drive down into Laminga village. Our hopes were raised when one Cuckoo came
flying towards our direction in response to the playback we had. Quickly we
determined a good catching spot, set up our nets, together with the stuffed
Common Cuckoo and the playback. We watched keenly as a male Cuckoo flew round
and round the nets, occasionally coming very close to the net. Soon there were
2 individuals flying around. But, again and again our hopes were dashed. Now we
began to think "what were we doing wrongly?..."
May 26: As early as 05:00
we drove to Laminga, to the site where we encountered the 2 individuals the
previous day. With the nets opened and fingers crossed, we waited patiently
while our playback equipment entertained us with the famous "cuc - koo..
cuc –koo.." call. Soon a male was responding to our playback. After a
while, Roine decided to lure the male towards the net. Indeed he seemed to have
got the birds attention because now it was scanning the net to see who the
intruder was. Suddenly, Roine was running, I was running and so was Kasper, all
towards the net. Yes! We caught the first African Cuckoo. As I took the bird
out of the net, the Hallelujah chorus rang in my head. Oh! What a feeling it
was.
May 27: no success was
recorded.
May 28: At another
location in Laminga. Imagine a Cuckoo sitting on the net pole for some time and
then dropping down to sit next to the stuffed cuckoo for over 30 minutes. That
was the experience that evening until we managed to flush it into the net.
May 29: we moved the nets
to Kerker and by evening using Roine’s tricks, we caught one more individual.
May 30: we move the nets
to another spot within the area and by evening we had bird number 4.
May 31: we caught bird
number 5 just 6 minutes after opening the nets.
June 1 - June 3: Attempts
made to catch more individuals were not successful.
So far, data downloaded
shows that the birds have been moving back and forth, relatively close the
ringing site, (view image of Cuckoo 126696). On the image, the colour of the
dot indicates the quality of the data; dark blue (representing the maximum location
class, LC 3), light blue (LC 2) and green dots (LC 1). White dot is LC 0, while
yellow and brown dots are LC A and LC B respectively. LC A and B are of poor
quality and most likely not representative of where the bird was in reality.
I anticipate that soon we
would be able to provide some answers to questions relating to intra-African
migration, especially for the African Cuckoo.
