What birds (are you/have you been) watching? What birds have been watching you?

[Dave2002]

I woke up today to the sound of a cuckoo. It was around 5.30am. At first I thought I was dreaming, and it seemed to move around. By the time I’d got my recorder out it had all but gone away, but I shall listen later to see if I captured anything. It was “cuckooing” on and off for perhaps 15-20 minutes in total.

Is it likely to come back tomorrow?

[Dave2002]

Completely missed it in my recording, though I did capture some other bird noises so the recording technique works. Quite a noisy background - perhaps that's inevitable with a cheapish microphone/recorder. I hope I get another opportunity this year.

[greenilex]

Wait for a couple of anniversaries before the bird is back.

[Dave2002]

Wait for a couple of anniversaries before the bird is back.

I didn't have to wait that long, and I don't give up that easily.

https://soundcloud.com/user-977473438/cuckoo at around 10 o'clock this morning IIRC.

[Serial_Apologist]

I didn't have to wait that long, and I don't give up that easily.

https://soundcloud.com/user-977473438/cuckoo at around 10 o'clock this morning IIRC.

The first and last time within residents' living memory here was seven years ago. Had my neighbour not drawn my attention I would have missed it, as one is not expecting to hear a cuckoo's song in this part of London.

[Pianorak]

I definitely heard a cuckoo yesterday while in the garden, probably late morning. Actually not sure I have ever heard one before.

[Padraig]

No cuckoos, alas, but a rarity for this garden. Last week I spotted a stranger - two of them. At first glace I thought robins, of which we have several, and we don't have any sparrows, but they turned out to be dunnocks and they're still very much in evidence. 'The Book' says they are a common little bird but not in my book.

[oddoneout]

No cuckoos, alas, but a rarity for this garden. Last week I spotted a stranger - two of them. At first glace I thought robins, of which we have several, and we don't have any sparrows, but they turned out to be dunnocks and they're still very much in evidence. 'The Book' says they are a common little bird but not in my book.

I have dunnocks in my garden and find them rather engaging little creatures, although the cause of mutual alarm on occasion as their close to the ground habits means I don't always realise they are there until they suddenly shoot up from the border or grass. There was one on the lawn earlier today stuffing itself on seeding dandelions(the grass needs cutting!)

[Vox Humana]

Mrs Humana dragged me out for the day today. We visited a marsh, not expecting much since most self-respecting waders and ducks should have departed for their breeding grounds. In fact we saw a surprisingly good selection, of birds, albeit mostly in modest numbers. There were well over 100 Black-tailed Godwits, several Shelduck, still a few Wigeon, a couple of Shoveler, Mallards, two or three Lapwings, sundry Moorhens, Coots, a couple of Little Egrets, far too many Jackdaws and Magpies, Swifts, Sand Martins, House Martins. Pretty good value really. Then onto a local wood where there wasn't much doing, owing to it being rather late in the afternoon. Nevertheless we saw several Pied Flycatchers, a Spotted Flycatcher and a Great Spotted Woodpecker bringing food to its nest hole. Nothing to make the twitchers grab their car keys, but a very pleasant outing nonetheless.

[Dave2002]

I realised that I knew relatively little about cuckoos, though they do seem to be on the decline in the UK.
More is now known about their migratory habits - though there is still quite a lot left unknown. https://www.bto.org/science/migratio...tracking/about

I found this page about Shakespeare and cuckoos - http://theshakespeareblog.com/2011/0...-and-cuckolds/

I like the sound of the cuckoo, but the birds are thugs, and hardly models of good behaviour. I suppose it's only the males that make the cuckoo sound.
Do cuckoos form any kind of social groups? Indeed, what about other birds? Some birds clearly organise themselves into much larger groups on occasions, most probably for migration, but others perhaps are much more solitary, without even strong pair bonding. What roles do the male and female cuckoos take on, or are they trully the delinquents of the bird world?

[cloughie]

I realised that I knew relatively little about cuckoos, though they do seem to be on the decline in the UK.
More is now known about their migratory habits - though there is still quite a lot left unknown. https://www.bto.org/science/migratio...tracking/about

I found this page about Shakespeare and cuckoos - http://theshakespeareblog.com/2011/0...-and-cuckolds/

What roles do the male and female cuckoos take on, or are they trully the delinquents of the bird world?

Probably, fornication, careful placement of eggs in other nests and upsetting pipits!

[Richard Tarleton]

I like the sound of the cuckoo, but the birds are thugs, and hardly models of good behaviour. I suppose it's only the males that make the cuckoo sound.

A mistake to think in anthropomorphic terms of human morality - better to wonder at the infinite variety of evolution. Nest parasitism is necessarily a minority strategy, but amazing nevertheless. There are other forms of parasitism in the bird world, notably robbing others of food (skuas, frigate birds, crows, gulls....).

There is a constant evolutionary arms race between cuckoos and their hosts over egg colour and pattern, as of course the cuckoo's have to look just like their host's, whereas it increases the chances of rejection or desertion by the host if they don't.... The great spotted cuckoo, which I've seen in Spain (and on Tenby golf course a few years ago, when one turned up in early spring ), lays its eggs in the nests of larger birds (crows, azure-winged magpies) but the young does not turf out the other eggs, rather growing up alongside them - so less of a thug . And yes, only the male cuckoo goes cuckoo, the female makes a bubbling sound. And yes, the cuckoo adults have no contact with their young. They even migrate back to Africa a month or so earlier (having nothing further to do), which makes the whole process even more amazing.

PS I don't play golf, I went there purely to see the GSC. Just to make that clear.

[gradus]

I heard cuckoos for the first time this year yesterday, as far as I could tell 3 different birds in 3 directions. Seems a bit late.

[Dave2002]

A mistake to think in anthropomorphic terms of human morality - better to wonder at the infinite variety of evolution. Nest parasitism is necessarily a minority strategy, but amazing nevertheless. There are other forms of parasitism in the bird world, notably robbing others of food (skuas, frigate birds, crows, gulls....).

Absolutely. However even some humans don't think in terms of "human morality" as we know it now. In Elizabeth I's time piracy almost seemed like an approved form of raising state revenues. Absolutist religion based "morality" has also been quite largely downplayed in the last century or so.

There is a constant evolutionary arms race between cuckoos and their hosts over egg colour and pattern, as of course the cuckoo's have to look just like their host's, whereas it increases the chances of rejection or desertion by the host if they don't.... And yes, the cuckoo adults have no contact with their young. They even migrate back to Africa a month or so earlier (having nothing further to do), which makes the whole process even more amazing.

Amazing that the young know where to migrate to. Do they travel back alone or in groups? That was not clear from the site I mentioned earlier, though it may be hard to tell as relatively few birds have been ringed. Also, is it possible to ring young birds which have not yet made the journey at all?

[ardcarp]

We have noticed (or rather not noticed!) swallows seem far fewer in number this May as opposed to previous years. Is this a local thing, or have others noticed this too? Could it be that they're waiting for a good SW wind to blow them back from down south? We've had a preponderance of Northerlies for some time now, and it looks as if the wind will be N or NE for most of next week too. If the swallows leave it too late, surely it will affect their breeding?