Meet Patch

Everyone who is taking part in the Patchwork Challenge should give themselves a pat on the back. The list of birds that the PWC competition is gradually accruing over the course of 2013, will, thanks to the kindness of those good people at Meopta and Forest Optic, be turned into a donation to the BTO's Out of Africa appeal.

This work has seen the tracking of cuckoos and nightingales on their journeys from Britain to their African wintering grounds and back, using geolocators, the fascinating results of which can be found here for previous years work.

The BTO have been kind enough to name one of their cuckoos for this year 'Patch' which is both tremendously exciting and a massive honour for us here in PWC Towers. You can follow Patch's progress southward (and then very hopefully, northward again, by checking this page.

Attaching geolocators and GPS tags is increasing our knowledge of bird movements hugely. Unfortunately, the hardware for this kind of study does not come cheap, so please contribute to the future of this work and our understanding of migratory birds (as an example, geolocators and data retrieval for each cuckoo on this project will cost approximately £3,000). You can make a general donation here,  or you can sponsor individual cuckoos by following the links for each bird on this page.

Thanks!