1 EAGLETON NOTES: Cuckoo

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Monday 15 August 2011

Cuckoo

The birds suddenly disappeared from the garden - all of them including the pigeons.  Aha, I reasoned in one of my more lucid moments of thought, there must be a bird of prey around.  Sure enough as I looked down into the valley from the Study window there was a Sparrowhawk coming up the valley.  Good eyesight these birds have and a good early warning system too, I thought.  The said bird settled down on a fencepost some three or four crofts away.  It then flew from fencepost to fencepost just as a bird of prey does.  Something, however, was not right.  It wasn't sitting up like a bird of prey but down - like a Cuckoo.  But it's a bit late for Cuckoos.  Well, not actually.  The older birds leave the Island in July but this year's young don't leave until August.  Closer inspection through the spotterscope confirmed that it was a Cuckoo.  Unfortunately it was a long way off and even with the 660mm equivalent lens the dull day meant that the pictures were poor.  But they confirm a Cuckoo.  It's the first time I've seen a Cuckoo from the house though I hear them a lot earlier in the year.



5 comments:

  1. I've never seen a cuckoo, only heard it. I wouldn't have thought pigeons among the birds to feel threatend by a cuckoo - but what do I know. (Not very much about birds, really.)

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  2. neither do I; I just know I love watching them. love the background!

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  3. I wouldn't have thought all those other birds feel they have to lay low while a cuckoo is near, but I am sure they had valid reasons.

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  4. Apparently, Librarian, birds frequently react to accipiter-like birds in this way. The Cuckoo is frequently mistaken for a Sparrowhawk. Better safe than sorry I suppose.

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  5. I'm full of envy........I have spent ours tracking the Cuckoo. They always hop from post to post faster than I can close the gap.

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