The Cuckoo, mobbed by a Meadow Pipit

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.

4 responses to “The Cuckoo, mobbed by a Meadow Pipit”

Jeff.

June 21, 2012 at 7:42 pm

These shots are like no others, what a record and fantastic captures Charlie. You have even captured the rain drops!

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Dick Passmore

June 26, 2012 at 9:44 pm

I am not terribly IT aware, so have probably put this in the wrong place, but who cares? I cannot believe that any true ornithologist would want to encroach on to anyone’s personal enjoyment. Share by all means, but deliberately set out to “find” another’s spot, and then gloat about it? For heaven’s sake, get a life, Charlie is giving hundreds of people genuine enjoyment, and some idiot thinks it great to “find” his cuckoo spot and ruin everything. As Charlie says, the moor is huge, and they “just came across it” seems a little weird to say the least. To even suggest that he is “a foreigner” as he hails from another part of this country is simply ridiculous. IGNORE THEM CHARLIE, but can I just remind whoever his opponent is that to be a TRUE Devonian, Yorkshireman, Cornishman or whatever, one’s parents need to have both been born in that particular county. I wonder if that applies in this case? Charlie, carry on you excellent work, in these dire times we need people like you to give us some light relief from the boredom of being ruled by prats in Westminster and Europe. No doubt I will have similar silly emails from “those people”, but what the hell, I can give as much as I get, so go for it if you wish.

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Mick Nicholls

June 27, 2012 at 9:05 am

Charlie,
I fully endorse the sentiments written by Dick Passmore.
I must admit that I would had a few things to say to the idiots that would not be able to be written on this blog!
Keep up your brilliant work, it gives me my wildlife nature ‘fix’ every morning!!

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roylivermore@hotmail.com

June 26, 2013 at 11:22 pm

I saw something similar on Dartmoor the other day. It looked as though the cuckoo was being mobbed, but it took no notice of the pipits. Your photos show pipits with food. Were they actually mobbing the cuckoo and, if so, how do they recognise it as a threat, bearing in mind the lengths the female goes to in order not to be discovered in the act?
Roy

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