We were delighted to get news of Sayaan, a cuckoo that was tagged at Knepp in May, traveling along the corridor route from Knepp towards the Sussex coast and back up towards Ashdown Forest.

This is such a great affirmation of the corridor route and adds to the motivation to join up existing habitats for our threatened species.

We’ve lost 65% of our cuckoos in the UK since the 80s due to habitat loss and widespread decline in our insects. For a bird that was synonymous with the sound of spring in Sussex just a generation ago, it is hard to imagine it is now on the Red List of birds at risk of catastrophic decline. It joins a growing group of other Sussex species including, house martins, swifts, greenfinches, nightingales, turtle doves and dunlin that are at risk of vanishing from our landscape.

Sayaan is an old Siberian name that means “kind, generous and warm like the sun”. We wish her all the luck in the world in her journey and hope that in future years she will return to find safe passage though Sussex and beyond.

If you want to follow Sayaan, visit the British Trust for Ornithology to see a map of her flight path.