Cuckoos and Meadow Pipits have a strange relationship. All the Dartmoor Cuckoos I would guess, have one thing in common, they were all hatched by, fed and nurtured by and brought to independance by, a Meadow Pipit. It's as though the Meadow Pipits somehow know that they have been duped and attack the Cuckoos bravely whenever they get the opportunity. It seems odd to me though that the same Meadow Pipit that is so keen to mob the Cuckoo may perhaps be returning to a nest and a massive baby Cuckoo of it's own. Today I managed to take some great photos of one such episode of attack by a particularly persistent Meadow Pipit. When I arrived it was just about starting to rain but I knew he was in his territory so I went to sit under the cam net and almost immediately i saw a a Cuckoo...... it was a female, she didn't stay long but immediately departed. Females are much more difficult to see, at least that is my impression. They tend to be very quiet and keep themselves hidden. This is because they need to quietly watch for Meadow Pipit nests and they would not be successful in the breeding strategy if they were seen regularly by Meadow Pipits. They need to spend a great deal of time watching the movements of Meadow Pipits particularly when they are first building and then laying the clutch. Her own egg is then laid alongside the clutch of the Meadow Pipits. Estimates as to how many eggs are laid are said to be as many as 17. That means that a female Cuckoo neeeds to find the nests of as many as 17 Meadow Pipits, quite a feat in it'self.
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