The Callum Brae Cuckoo

[Julian Robinson <>]

For Elizabeth, Bill and others who expressed an interest in progress of
the Callum Brae Pallid Cuckoo, here's an update to lunchtime today
(Wednesday 10th Jan)...

Day 1 (Sunday 31st Dec) Cuckoo was sitting noisily in the White-plumed
Honeyeater (HE) nest being fed by at least one host parent.
Day 3 it was unable to fit in the nest and so sitting around the
nest, being fed by both HEs
Day 4 lying straddled on top of the nest in the morning and standing on
branch above nest later, 
Day 5 sort of fledged and being fed in adjacent tree (Geoffrey Dabb saw
it fly from the nest to the branch early this morning, am amazing feat
since it had no tail feathers and not a lot of wing.  G said it flew
unsteadily to above the destination branch then sort of dropped out of
the sky onto the branch).
Day 6 Friday Elizabeth and Bill Compton saw it on the ground in amongst
the thistles but still being fed.  By the time I got there it was
still on the ground, but in the open and being mugged by woodswallows
whenever the honeyeaters were away finding insects.  I guess that's
how it got there i.e. knocked off its perch by woodswallows.  It
didn't look as though it was going to last long and plainly couldn't fly
upwards from a stationary ground-start to a safer place.

So I broke the rules of dispassionate observation and moved it to a
branch about 11am.  First branch was too exposed or in someone
else's tree and it still got mugged so moved it to a more secretive
branch and all seemed well.  I was interested to notice that on the
second move, the HEs obviously didn't see me move it, because they flew
back to the original branch (with yet more food) and squittered around
there for a while looking puzzled.  Then flew away into a search
pattern, taking 2 minutes to find the chick again.  The cuckoo had
gone silent for a while after being moved and was not cheeping as it
usually was.

About 17:30 I went back briefly to show Michelle Landstrom who's studying
cuckoos and it was still in the same tree and being fed
assiduously.  I reckon it was now about twice the size it had been
only 5 days before, not surprising when you counted up how much protein
had been shoved into that monstrous gape over that time.

Day 10 Tuesday 9th the study team was in attendance and Nicholas Talbot
was digiscoping video. Cuckoo was now on a relatively high branch in a
new tree.  Again noticeably bigger and now could reliably fly from
branch to branch so I figured all was well and in fact that this might be
the last we saw of it.

Day 11 today I arrived with 4 year-old to observe the easy-view willie
wagtail nest (with three child-attracting chicks) and was surprised to
see, just as we arrived, a melee of cuckoo, honeyeaters and
wagtails.  It seems the cuckoo had ill-advisedly flown to the
wagtail tree and was being told to bugger off.  The honeyeaters
withdrew from the skirmish and sat on a branch watching  while the
cuckoo was now on the ground in the full sun being well and truly
attacked - pecked, ,jumped on and generally battered.  I decided
that this time I should let things be, which was a good move as the
cuckoo finally found the gumption to firstly make a threatening face at
the wagtail (a bit like a lizard, a brave or desperate sign) and then run
along a bit and fly to yet another tree where it later looked tatty but
otherwise ok.  The honeyeaters just flew over to new tree and
resumed feeding duty.

Photo attached shows :

1 concerned but not-too-concerned foster parent watching
2&3&4 Foster-child gets a beating
5 Escape and safe for now in new tree.

It's a hard life.

I'm going away tomorrow for a week or so and would be grateful for any
news on progress.
Julian

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