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Last broadcast on Thu, 9 Jun 2011, 21:00 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
7/30 This week's Saving Species explores the mysteries of bird migration. Joanna Pinnock joined the British Trust for Ornithology on an early morning expedition to put a special transmitter on a Cuckoo. Many birds undertake extraordinary long distance migrations to find favourable conditions and resources for feeding and breeding. Very little is known about the Cuckoo's migration - and we'll be following the progress of the male being followed by the BTO biologists. Chris Sperring is in Somerset finding out about the fortune of the pied flycatcher, a summer visitor to this country which migrates from Africa to breed in woodlands on the Western and South West side of the UK. Scientists are ringing chicks to try and monitor when the adults breed and the numbers of chicks that survive and leave the nest. And Mark Brazil reports from the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido watching the little understood Latham's Snipe that migrates from Hokkaido to the southern tip of Australia each year.
Presenter: Brett Westwood
Producer: Sheena Duncan
Editor: Julian Hector.
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Adult pied flycatcher at nest box, Sessile oak woodland, Quantock Hills, Somerset
Image by Chris Sperring
Pied flycatcher chick with unique bird identification ring
Image by Chris Sperring
Chris Hewson of the BTO with "Chris" the newly tagged Cuckoo before release on June 1, 2011
Image by Jo Pinnock
Broadcasts
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Tue 7 Jun 201111:00
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Thu 9 Jun 201121:00
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