Cuckoos are back!

[martin butterfield <>]

Kathy's record relates to GBS Week 32, which for Pallid Cuckoo is a tad earlier than the average first 'date' in that Survey which is  week  34.  There is no significant trend in these dates over the 27 years of data which vary from Week 31 (2 years) to week 38 (1 year) with the modal week being 35 (10 years).    It is possible that 1 cuckoo doesn't make a spring but possibly a Pallid Cuckoo turning up in my GBS site (about 10km S of the Cook residence) is significant.

The fan tailed cuckoo is about spot on the average of week 33 (since Kathy's report was late in Week 32).  Again there is no significant trend in the species arrival dates varying from week 29 (3 years) to week 41 (1 year).  The modal week is week 31 (5 years) but there is quite an even spread from week 29 to week 34.  Interestingly the species was not reported in the GBS for years 24 and 25 - which gap caused me a little concern until it was confirmed to be genuine.

Hoping that a picture is worth 1000 words I have attached a chart of the distribution of week of first record x number of years.

Martin

On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 11:36 AM, Kathy Cook <> wrote:

A Pallid Cuckoo and a Fan-tailed Cuckoo at Wamboin this morning.

 

Kathy and David

Attachment:

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