The cuckoo’s decline takes centre stage

A SHOW will be staged in Northumberland at the weekend highlighting the decline of one of the birds which heralds spring in the UK.

North East storyteller Malcolm Green and his musician son Joshua will present “Gone Cuckoo” as part of Northumberland National Park Authority’s spring events programme.

The first performance is taking place at The Cheviot Centre, Wooler tomorrow (7.00).

It tells the migration story of a male cuckoo as he travels from the North of England to Africa, sending signals back to the UK via a tiny radio transmitter on his back. Combining myth and legend with scientific fact, Gone Cuckoo addresses the issue of conservation and the fact we may soon stop hearing the cuckoo’s calling.

“Sadly, the cuckoo is disappearing in England,” said Caroline Cope, engagement officer at Northumberland National Park Authority.

“Gone Cuckoo is a fantastic addition to our spring events programme for 2018 as it is not only highly entertaining but it also helps to engage people through the arts with conservation and the environment which is, of course, of the utmost importance to the national park.”

Tickets cost £8 and are available online through the Northumberland National Park website and Eventbrite.

To find out more, visit http://www.northumberlandnationalpark.org.uk/events/gone-cuckoo.

Breeding cuckoo numbers in the UK have fallen by more than half in the last 25 years.

Since 2011, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has been satellite-tracking cuckoos to try to find out why.

Climate change is causing the timings of the spring season to change.

There is evidence many migrant species are not advancing their arrival times sufficiently to track the earlier spring.