UKC

Cuckoo calling in Skye tonight. First one I have heard this year. A lovely sound bringing in the summer, or at least late spring.

I guess they will already have been heard further South. 

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Saw one in mid Cornwall a couple days back  

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Snowdonia last weekend, and the Beacons on Sunday.

In reply to Welsh Kate:

 First couple here on Sunday bike ride as well, friends in Doethie valley heard it over a week ago, always the first there.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Duddon Valley on Sunday.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

One in the south Lakes today. I'm amazed they are still around at all.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

There's one I know about here in Lancashire but most seem to keep going to Scotland.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Crookrise yesterday

In reply to Welsh Kate:

Same but in reverse. Heard one calling out while we were on Idwal Slabs today 

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Berlin last Friday

In reply to JoshOvki:

Don't forget to have a look at the hill above the copper mine at Beddgelert while you're up there!

In reply to Le Sapeur:

First cuckoos calling in Fontainebleau on 2nd April.

First calling in Torridon on 25th April.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Cuckoo below Birchen Edge last Tuesday - 23rd April. First I've heard in the Peak this Spring.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

A number of cuckoos have been satellite tagged by the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology).  You'll be able to follow their progress back to Africa once they've laid eggs.

https://bto-enews.org/IG4-64RV4-TZZ9AD-3IL3HX-1/c.aspx    This map shows you the route they took on their journey here.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Great to still hear them isn't it?

I heard my first on this year on 26th April on the SE edge of Dartmoor where I've been hearing them for decades. It was calling until 9.30pm! Such an incredible journey these birds have.

1st of May and the swifts have just come back to the nest they built last year in my car port! Summer must be here.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

One at High Neb Stanage yesterday

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Early morning on Saturday 20th this year (Trawsfynydd). Checking the diaries for the last 10 years, it has been between the 17th and the 21st every time. Isn't nature wonderful.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Seen and heard near Loch Ordie, near Dunkeld, on Sunday

In reply to Le Sapeur:

I'd never heard one before I moved to Aberdeenshire and started cycling around the local grouse moor. I went bouldering in Fontainebleau at the end of March and heard lots and was reminded that I didn't hear any at all on the local moors last year, I hope they return this year. 

In reply to Le Sapeur:

I’m confused... are they rare? And they wanted?

When I was growing up at my parents I would have a best of the little f*ckers right outside my window every summer. They woke me up and drove me to distraction. 

After moving out and around a bit I’ve now settled into my own house. A couple of weeks ago I was watching tv and heard the bloody things again coming from my chimney! I swear it induced a ptsd episode and I nearly cried! I hate the sound and I can’t get away from them!

In reply to La benya:

There on their way out like a lot of nature.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Is it just me, or does anyone else hate the sound of cuckoos? I think I just associate them with humid, midgy evenings. And they are irritatingly repetitive. I don't dislike the call of any other bird.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

On the river Stour, yesterday morning...

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Cuckoo heard at the Roaches on Sunday. Always warms my heart to hear them.

In reply to TMM:

Do you mean a mud nest? If so, then the birds will be either swallows or house martins, rather than swifts.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Cuckoos are such evil birds - c.f. Attenborough showing how they push the other eggs out of the nest and then scam the foster parents to work themselves to the bone....

In reply to Robert Durran:

it's what they do, singing as if butter wouldn't melt while planning murder

In reply to Rob Parsons:

Correct.  And for those interested, reason why swifts nest high up is because their wings are so long they would slap the ground thus preventing take off, so they literally drop off the edge of their nest site and then flap, so need a good height to prevent decking it.  Saw my first today, great sight.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

  This week I heard one on Mynedd Mawr, one in Nant Gwynant and at least  two in the Rhinogs.

  Pleasantly surprised having recently heard a radio report discussing their decline in numbers.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Heard one in the Forest of Dean last weekend!

In reply to mick taylor:

Swifts are great! We have some nesting under the eaves of the house next door, and they reach the nest by looping through our garden. The sound of summer!

Apparently they stay airborne continuously while not breeding, so seeing them land is something special:

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)31063-6?_return...

CB

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Greg Davies is excellent and will there be a new series?

In reply to Le Sapeur:

You can seduce a cuckoo, or at least get it to fly over to you. Just cup your hands and make a two-tone owl hoot and within a minute or two you'll see the cuckoo flying around you to investigate. I've never worked out whether they do it because they're looking for a mate or because they're defending their territory.

In reply to Rigid Raider:

True story I heard on 5 live:     ''I was in the shop chatting to my neighbour and told her that my husband, Geoff, has got so good at his owl call that he is going into the garden at night and is actually speaking to another owl.  My neighbour said 'can't believe it, my husband Bill, is doing the exact same thing!!''

Hope they kept it a secret.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

It's a few years since I heard a cuckoo, but was pleased to hear one whike runnjng between Marlow and Henley this mornjng. Also v pleased to see a heron, and tiny grey fluff-ball cygnets.

In reply to BusyLizzie:

Lucky you. It often seems to me all but impossible to get out of earshot of the damned things. One in every glen as far as I can tell!

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Cuckkoo - Isle of Kerrera - Thursday May 2nd - 9am.

Also Swallows on Monday at North Third Reservoir near Stirling.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

I heard but didn't see, swallows in Falkirk 2 weeks ago, thought it might have been starlings. Missus saw one in Rosyth last week, I saw some in Rosyth this week.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

Were you climbing there?

In reply to aln:

No just walking round the water - one of my favourite local haunts.

I did note that another thread about jamming cracks included a post by Robert Durran about a great crack on the cliffs at North Third.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

It's lovely up there...I haven't walked round the reservoir 

In reply to aln:

It used to be a base for a Fishing Group and they established a bridge over the burn that flows into the South side and had boats and a hut there. The hut is gone and the bridge is in a state of ruin but still passable if you ignore the 'No access' signs so a complete circuit is still possible. I think the fishery failed when the reservoir was being maintained a few years ago.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

It's been maybe 3 years since I was last up there. Have you ever climbed on the crags further from the recorded ones?

In reply to aln:

Not climbed up there at all, some of the rock looks quite weathered in that flaky dolerite way.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Cuckoo's are dicks. 

And if you can hear a cuckoo it's means the midges are about too. 

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Heard one on Dartmoor on Good Friday, and another last evening near Meltham, Yorks. I'm disappointed if I don't hear any on Dartmoor as they are quite common at this time of year.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Just heard one in Doctor's Gate in the Peak above Mossy Lee farm. In the new bit of woodland, which is good.

In reply to mick taylor:

Your not on your own with the owl calls. 1st Cuckoo  early  last week in Cwm-Y Glow

In reply to mick taylor:

I once picked up a grounded Swift from a pavement. The moment the air was under her wings she was off - a little groggily - into the sky. I had thought she was a child's boomerang!

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Heard a cuckoo in the woods 3 weeks ago when out deerstalking (mid-Herefordshire).  

In reply to Le Sapeur:

Loads of cuckoos in Knoydart last weekend (Hard to sleep) and we have got a couple outside our house in Dunblane, too. Lovely, but noisy!

In reply to Heike

Bastard birds!

In reply to Robert Durran:

Boo, down with the cuckoos...

....but honestly they were keeping me up all night: Cuckooo.........cuckoo from the other side (and so on....)

In reply to Heike:

Indeed. One ruined my Sunday morning in Arrochar - their tedious, irritating sound travels all the way to the tops

In reply to Robert Durran:

Well, yes, this weekend we also had Mr. Schnecky and Mrs Schnecketta (the slugs in the tent), Mr. Tickies (two on Lucas's ear) and several other annoying animals including the first midges of the year - I fear. 

In reply to Heike:

Give me all those over a bastard cuckoo any day.

In reply to Robert Durran:

Really? You must have a really bad Cuckoo!!!! Ok I give you that one....but after that you are on your own! Midge and tick season is upon us!!

In reply to Robert Durran:

Your antipathy to cuckoos is puzzling. For me their calling is nothing but a pleasure, being both unique and an integral part of spring. You may be happy to learn that a colleague of mine, late fifties, has recently lost the ability to hear them.

In reply to Wicamoi:

They're just so repetitive and penetrating. It sometimes seems hard to get away from their sound in the hills at this time of year. If I could filter them out, I would. I don't feel the same about any other birds.

In reply to Le Sapeur:

My cuckoo by Loch Ness has gone quiet with this siberian cold spell. Will chicks survive??

In reply to MargieB:

If the lazy bastard bird wants its chicks to survive it should actually pull its finger out and do something about it.