NEWS RELEASE
13th August 2012:
Cuckoo flies south for the winter - by British Airways!
Just a month after being injured and unable to fly, a female Cuckoo will be heading off on Tuesday 14th August to the sunshine of Italy - but having fallen so far behind her friends she is getting a helping hand, or rather wing, from British Airways!
The bird, found dying in a garden in Tolworth, Surrey, was taken to the Wildlife Aid Foundation's (WAF) veterinary hospital in Leatherhead for emergency treatment - and there she has remained till now.
WAF director Simon Cowell MBE knew that the Cuckoo would be a long way behind the other Cuckoos flying south for the winter, so with help from fellow conservationist Virginia McKenna of Born Free and one of our volunteers Mike Berwick, the search was on for an airline to fly the Cuckoo as far as Italy so that she can catch up with the others.
And thanks to British Airways, arrangements have been made for the Cuckoo to be transported in the cabin of a Boeing 737 to Turin on Tuesday morning, in the company of WAF's vet nurse Lucy Kells. Once in Italy, the bird - named Idemili - will be released to join her friends on their southward migration to Africa.
Simon Cowell explains: "Idemili is a very special cuckoo. She is in fact the only female cuckoo ever to have been fitted with a satellite tag by the British Trust for Ornithology. All other tagged Cuckoos are male. It was due to the tagging that WAF knew Idemili was the last Cuckoo to leave England, as all the other tagged Cuckoos had already migrated to warmer climes and were being tracked by satellite.
The Cuckoo is a red listed species, which means that its very survival is at risk, and over half of the breeding Cuckoos have been lost in the last 25 years, devastating the Cuckoo population and making them one of the UK's fastest declining migrant birds."
Currently in the British Trust for Ornithology's Cuckoo project there are four boys tracked from England - Lyster, Chris, John and Reacher, five boys from Scotland - BB, Chance, Mungo, Roy and Wallace - and four boys and one girl from Wales - David, Indy, Iolo, Lloyd, and Idemili.
Tracking the birds provides valuable information about the species and the migration patterns, also providing valuable insight into why this species are struggling so much at the moment and helping their conservation.The Cuckoo was named Idemili, by the staff of Essex and Suffolk water who sponsored her, after the River Goddess of the African Igbo religion in Nigeria, a region where she and the Cuckoos spent some of last winter.
WAF's Lucy Kells adds: "Poor little Idemili was in a very bad way when she came to us. She had been attacked by other birds and had sustained wounds to one of her wings. She also had a badly pecked head, was infested with parasites, and one of her eyes had closed due to a mixture of her dehydrated state, bruising from the other bird attack and underlying infection. We gave her antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, eye treatment and a vitamin boost to help her recover. She was found in the nick of time. It was an honour and a privilege to be able to help such a beautiful rare bird. I am really excited to be given the opportunity to actually go with her to Italy to watch as she flies away, enormous thanks to British Airways for organising this! Abi Comber and her team at BA are real stars for making this happen, especially when they are so busy with the Olympics."
UPDATE 14/08/2012
Up, up and away !!!!! Idemili was fine on the journey enjoying FIRST CLASS on the plane !!! but because she had not eaten all day Lucy decided to release her late in the afternoon today. She was totally calm, sat on Lucy's hand for a while, then gracefully took wing and headed south . Because of BA 's generous help and Lucy's care over the last month she has truly been given a second chance. Cuckoos were seen just yesterday at the site where she was released, so she is now with her own kind and on the way.
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Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:58 am
