Has anyone heard a cuckoo this year?

[Dave2002]

Apart from in a piece by Delius, or in the Pastoral stmphony.

Next question - has anyone here ever seen one?

[Bryn]

I recall seeing one in Penge when a child, also later in Norwood when we lived close by the lakes. Both times the birds observed were in flight.

[HighlandDougie]

I've heard cuckoos this year in both Scotland and France, with birds in the latter calling until past mid-June. Scottish ones both in Perthshire and in the Outer Hebrides, where I saw one being mobbed by meadow pipits as it flew off a telephone pole. Easy to mistake them superficially for a raptor (male sparrowhawk), although closer inspection - and sight of their flight pattern - should swiftly reveal the truth. The Harris examples started calling - loudly - around 2am, which quickly became a bit tedious. Numbers in France don't seem to be in decline.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I don't remember hearing a cuckoo at all in the twenty years I've lived in this bit of the Pennines (just south of Skipton, "Gateway to the Dales" - which I suppose makes this place the Aldi to the Dales). Years since I've heard one - and always on days out. A familiar sound during my childhood on the other side of the Pennines.

[ahinton]

I don't remember hearing a cuckoo at all in the twenty years I've lived in this bit of the Pennines (just south of Skipton, "Gateway to the Dales" - which I suppose makes this place the Aldi to the Dales). Years since I've heard one - and always on days out. A familiar sound during my childhood on the other side of the Pennines.

I've heard just one this year - apart from the somewhat intonationally challenged one in Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony...

[Serial_Apologist]

I recall seeing one in Penge when a child, also later in Norwood when we lived close by the lakes. Both times the birds observed were in flight.

That's amazing to hear, Bryn. My ex-neighbours brought the sound of a cuckoo singing not far away from here a few years ago, saying that in 20 years they had never previously heard one. Since then I haven't. I would imagine one would be more likely to hear them in the vicinity of Bracknell, there being extensive woodland all around.

[Richard Tarleton]

I've only heard one this year in Pembs, and I spend a lot of time out and about. Here's some info about the BTO's cuckoo tracking scheme - grim news.

I used to see lots of them in the 70s and 80s where I worked - those ones parasitised the nests of meadow pipits in sand dunes. Often watched them do it. Small birds mobbed them.

[gradus]

Neither heard nor seen here, unusual in these parts.

[johncorrigan]

I heard one up at the top of Glenisla in Angus back in May. And in June one on the Isle of Eigg on a day that also included Golden Eagles and Ravens. I saw cuckoos on two occasions, both pointed out by people a lot more knowledgeable than me, one at the Reekie Linn on the River Isla and one at the north end of the Island of Jura in 1987 - always memorable!

[Padraig]

Not this year. Last year once, near the golf club at Fahan ( Inch Island, Richard), where it used to be a frequent sound.
When I used to fish in Lough Corrib in May the sound of the cuckoo coming over the large expanse of water added to the magic of the place.

[Ferretfancy]

There's a favourite spot on Lingmoor in Great Langdale which we always know as The Larches. I vividly remember climbing up there a few years ago
and not only hearing the bird, but getting a close up view as it perched on one of the branches near where we sat. Magic.

[oddoneout]

Until about 6 or 8 years ago there were always at least 3 to be heard in the vicinity of my home/allotment, then it became 2 then occasionally one but none heard for a couple of years now. There are lots where my sister lives in the far NW of Scotland and last year she was not only able to stand outside her back door when phoning me so I could listen to them calling but she was also able to send pictures of two perched at various times on a rowan 20 ft from her back door.

[jayne lee wilson]

Like RT, used to see Cuckoos often in the coastal dunes, woods and fields north of the city. I can't even recall hearing one for many years now, but I can't walk quite as far out there now either...!

Still there are compensations - Buzzards regularly soar and swoop and call, quite low sometimes, across the garden, and a pair of Ravens have appeared several times recently too. I don't know where they could be living nearby. Day tripping over from North Wales perhaps? That wonderful guttural call is special..., and seems, like that of the Buzzard and the lamented Cuckoo, to carry for miles...

[agingjb]

Seen just one this year (southern Hampshire). We hear a few (male) cuckoos most years, but see them only occasionally.

In better times we would see several in a year, and even hear female cuckoos.

[Alain Maréchal]

I've heard many this year, but I believe the Central Loire/Allier valleys form a migration route. Also a few weeks ago I heard one most mornings at Minster-in-Thanet, next to the Great Stour. Both areas are very wet, marshy and full of small lakes, if that is a common factor.