A boring cuckoo has been bawling away but has now drawn into the far distance and is only just audible.
I always suspect cuckoos are trying to tell me something. Swerving left though, there was a geezer in my Grove local who could be wound up by the unkind regulars murmuring 'Cuckoo!' I didn't do it myself and tried to talk to the guy, but he wasn't to be comforted, proud cat.
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>> I always suspect cuckoos are trying to tell me something.
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Hurry home to your wife?
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I once read an interesting fact about the Cuckoo, apparently they only call "Cuckoo" until July, then they go back to Africa and sing a completely different song! - so they are only Cuckoos in the breeding season over here.
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We've had one calling round here in last week or two. Same time last year too.
Not seen it though. IIRC in wooded etc country they tend to skulk in tree tops and undergrowth.
In moorland etc where they are 'hosted' by ground nesters they're easier to watch. Biggish birds with a raptor like profile - passing resemblance to a Sparrowhawk.
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I love the call of the cuckoo.....are they only in northern parts of the UK? I heard my first cuckoo in Bretherdale/Borrowdale two weekends ago, and was always pleased to hear them when I walked across Scotland in mid May.
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>> I love the call of the cuckoo.....are they only in northern parts of the UK?
They're all over the UK. I follow some birdwatchers' forums and there seem to have been plenty of sighting/hearings this year down south. A couple of years ago I even saw one on the Cuckoo Trail - a Sussex trail for cyclists, walkers and horse-riders which follows the route of a disused railway line known as the Cuckoo Line. Next weekend there's an event on called the Cuckoo Spring Fayre.
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A few years ago, walking around the Cornish coastline, we witnessed 2 cuckoos madly chasing one another around a headland. Impressively fast, almost like small hawks, but somewhat louder.
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Did you write a letter to The Times?
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The Cuckoo comes in April
In May it begins to sing
In June begins to stutter
And in July it flies away.
Pat
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The Cuckoo comes in April
He sings all day in May
In June he changes his tune
In July he flies away
In August go he must
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The Cuckoo comes in April
She sings her song in May
She changes her tune
In the month of June
And July she flies away
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Who knew there was so many verses about a bird migratory habits?
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Incidentally, the cuckoo's call has always sounded to me more like 'book-boo' than cuckoo.
I won't ask if it's just me. I don't want to know really.
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The Cuckoo came in April,
He sang all day in May.
In June he met a Peregrine
And had nothing more to say.
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The Cuckoo came in April,
He sang all day in May,
The farmer loaded his shotgun,
And blew the noisy ****** away.
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>> The farmer loaded his shotgun,
And blew the noisy ****** away.
A probably untrue story about the rich, eccentric Mizner brothers: one of them went to stay in a house in whose master bedroom was a cuckoo clock.
After being awoken at one or two in the morning by this clock, the Mizner brother went down to the gunroom and selected a double barrelled ten bore or something similar. When the cuckoo opened up at 3 am, he gave it both barrels.
Stylish behaviour I always thought.
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Stylish but remarkably thick.
I've no reason to think my cuckcoo clock is anything special, but there are two non-violent ways of stopping it cuckooing. The little door that opens and lets the bird pokes its beak out and sing though has a wire stop. Don't allow the door to open and the bird is silent, not one irritating cheep.
The other, is the cuckoo mechanism is driven by a separate weight, and jamming this will also stop the birdsong.
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>> Stylish but remarkably thick.
Not thick, practical. The clock allegedly was placed too high on the wall to be reached without a stepladder. No doubt Wilson or Addison Mizner (can't remember which) didn't want to bother the servants in the middle of the night.
:o}
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As someone who loves the sound of the cuckoo, never heard in my part of the world...its call brings back fond memories of my X Scotland backpacks in May, I would like to treat my myself to a decent cuckoo clock. It's my birthday tomorrow!
Any suggestions please as to where I could treat myself...or make
Budget £100 tops
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Why not splash out 50p tomorrow and put a cuckoo clock app on your phone, if you have one. After eight hours of doing its thing you may change your mind, save £99.50 and you can spend that on something else lovely instead, like a quarter of the tax on a Maserati for example.
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We've been very pleased to hear and see turtle doves a couple of times round here this summer. First time for a few years.
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I used to be a pain in the backside to my mother buying pets or picking them up whenever I got the change.
Got this Parrot did everything I could for it to like me.Didn't work out it always went for me.
One of the family took it in I don't know if it is still alive.Not a boring bird just vicious.
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Boring bird - Cliff Pope
