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Any cuckoos out there? ... and other BirdWatch/NatureWatch news


taxi4ballet

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St George’s Day was always the day we heard the cuckoo in Kent and we very occasionally saw the cuckoo sitting on the telegraph wires. It’s tending to be early May in Cumbria before hearing the cuckoo. But is there any cuckoo news from Forum members this year?

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54 minutes ago, JohnS said:

St George’s Day was always the day we heard the cuckoo in Kent and we very occasionally saw the cuckoo sitting on the telegraph wires. It’s tending to be early May in Cumbria before hearing the cuckoo. But is there any cuckoo news from Forum members this year?

Not yet in Suffolk. 
Just sat in garden listening to all the bird song. 

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Pretty sure it is not a crow though!

It looks like either a young wood pigeon or collared dove to me.

We had crows nest in the garden about three years ago and they were definitely into black feathers fairly quickly.

Rather cute though. 

A local rescue centre near Lewes in East Sussex has just posted a tiny Wood pigeon someone rescued ....when very small they are fluffy little grey things not unlike baby gulls but it's rare to see them at this stage in the garden. By the time they are in the garden they look like mini adults but without the neck markings and I think the beak is a different colour. 

If  I had to choose one would say collared dove ......on the other hand though the beak looks like a Woody's beak! 

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Surprised to answer my own question but I heard a cuckoo at sunset today, just a few minutes from home at Headend Quarry, North Cumbria. There were several calls so no mistake. Astonished to hear a cuckoo on 24 April, at least a week before I might expect to hear one.

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I haven't heard a cuckoo for a few years now unfortunately but last time I did hear one in Sussex a few years back it was April 27th.

It was a friend's birthday and we had gone to Wakehurst Place on a glorious day where there is quite a wild bit and while in the woods there heard a cuckoo. 

It felt very exciting to hear this cuckoo a definite herald that Spring was finally here. 

I certainly haven't heard one since but you wouldn't really where I live it's too near the coast I think. 

Its a case of being in the right place at the right time sometimes. 

 

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13 hours ago, Shade said:

Could it be a Jay  I wonder

 

I have seen a jay in the garden so that's a possibility and I'd be happy with that outcome..  Don't think it's a collared dove as we saw a fledgling with its mother the same day and it was far less stocky.  Could be a woodpigeon but on the pics I've seen their beaks have a more pronounced bump in them.  It's flown off now so we'll likely never know!

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16 hours ago, alison said:

This is a fledgling collared dove, it says:

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/rXhmWCp4T6kLthoE8

 

Can't see how it can be a crow, given that all the pictures of baby crows I can find are indeed very dark.

actually that does look like it.  it's heavier than the adult collared doves round here but a lot of baby birds seem to have that 'baby fat' look

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3 hours ago, Quintus said:

actually that does look like it.  it's heavier than the adult collared doves round here but a lot of baby birds seem to have that 'baby fat' look

 

I would have said it was definitely a Collared Dove. Often baby birds are heavier than adults as all they do is sit around the nest and eat. Once they start wing flapping they lose the fat for muscle, and once they are flying, they usually have to feed themselves so get really skinny! Saying that, last year I saw a young Wood Pigeon perched on the fence, with its wing around an adult in what looked like a hug, as it begged for food (it worked too, as it got a feed)

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I’m an over thinker, always have been. I’m a slave to the constant internal dialogue. But it struck me recently that maybe some of my thoughts are just plain wrong, so I’ve been trying to listen to my body more and my thoughts less. When I set off on my early morning walk this morning I had one simple thought, what fills my cup? I walked a route that I take often, have done for years. So imagine my delight when I noticed , for the first time ever, a beautiful flowering bush. It might have been a lilac ( I’m not that good with plants) growing wild along the path. I was feeling a little  smug that I’d got out before most people had stirred and I was enjoying the peace and beauty of a slightly chilly spring morning, a slight frost was on the ground and I stopped to look at the incredible beauty of a field full of cobwebs highlighted by the spring frost . I felt very pleased with myself for finding such peace but my mind started mentally writing about it and in an attempt to commit this feeling to words, before long I found myself going over and over it in my mind ( the curse of the internal dialogue again!). I stopped, closed my eyes, stood still and told myself to enjoy the thoughts, commit them to memory and then let them go! When I opened my eyes I looked up through the vivid bright green of the spring leaves on the tree into the deep blue sky and felt utter peace. At that moment I was rewarded with the sound of the cuckoo’s call! .......

a moment of joy in a difficult time
 

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21 minutes ago, Bex does ballet said:

When I opened my eyes I looked up through the vivid bright green of the spring leaves on the tree into the deep blue sky and felt utter peace. At that moment I was rewarded with the sound of the cuckoo’s call! .......

a moment of joy in a difficult time
 

 

Beautiful words Bex, you have really lifted my spirits.

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Thank you Jan, the cuckoos call and the beauty of the experience certainly lifted my spirits. An hour later after a light yoga session on the patio I sat down in the sun with a ‘cafe-con-leche-y-croissant’ and my cup is well and truly full! Now, onto the washing and ironing mountain 😂

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Love that post  Bex does Ballet!

Is that serendipity? 
A universal connection 🤔😊 

Shame about the more earthly washing and ironing though 😩

I think you could at least sort the ironing into absolutely essential ironing and non essential ironing as is the current mode on things 🙄

 

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3 hours ago, LinMM said:

Love that post  Bex does Ballet!

Is that serendipity? 
A universal connection 🤔😊 

Shame about the more earthly washing and ironing though 😩

I think you could at least sort the ironing into absolutely essential ironing and non essential ironing as is the current mode on things 🙄

 

Actually, that’s exactly what Me Bex had to say! I have now simply folded and stashed away 😂

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  • 2 weeks later...
49 minutes ago, taxi4ballet said:

 

I did see a couple of lapwings the other day though, they aren't all that common now, are they?

 

They were a common sight when I was a lad, on the farmland that lay between the woods and the moors above the town in south Wales where I grew up. A pair (or two) in every field at nesting time. When I was last there, some 20 years back now - not a single one left. 😞  They are probably my favourite bird, their evocative call even now makes me think of my childhood

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7 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

 

They were a common sight when I was a lad, on the farmland that lay between the woods and the moors above the town in south Wales where I grew up. A pair (or two) in every field at nesting time. When I was last there, some 20 years back now - not a single one left. 😞  They are probably my favourite bird, their evocative call even now makes me think of my childhood

When the Jubilee River was created there were two pairs of lapwings regularly nesting on open land beside the water.  However a footpath laid along the riverbank meant that the poor parent birds were constantly being disturbed by joggers, cyclists and dog-walkers (I used to put my dog, Pluto on his lead) and after a while they gave up and moved elsewhere.  I miss them terribly.

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On 05/05/2020 at 06:04, AnneMarriott said:

Just back from dog-walking aka daily exercise allowance.  Heard a cuckoo - for the first times in years.  So excited!  A very spirit raising moment.

Update:  no cuckoo this morning but nature is alive and well just the same.  The bright flash of a kingfisher, a pair of flying swans, a young and handsome fox bursting out across the path a couple of yards in front of us (cue a lot of random thrashing about in the undergrowth as Freddie, our collie/whippet cross tried foxhunting without success) and, on the home straight, a land-speed and barking contest between Freddie and a German Shepherd.  The German Shepherd won the barking and Freddie evened the score by romping home in the land speed by a mile.  All that and brilliant sunshine as well.

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We've got a very loud wren and a robin in the garden at the moment both competing for the voice of Spring award! 

Usually the wrens and robins tend to disappear for a while at this time of year as inspite of having lovely purpose built houses for both of them dotted around the garden they tend to prefer DIY jobs and disappear off to nest elsewhere 😩

Anyway this year they both can't be that far away ( still trying to see if the Robin has finally given in and is actually in a box in the holly tree) as there's a big old sing song on a daily basis going on at the moment. When the blackbird joins in too it's quite a sound feast out there 😊 

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We’ve been hearing both woodpeckers and cuckoos whilst sat in the garden for the last week or two, have never heard either from our garden before this year. 

On 05/05/2020 at 06:04, AnneMarriott said:

Just back from dog-walking aka daily exercise allowance.  Heard a cuckoo - for the first times in years.  So excited!  A very spirit raising moment.

It really is quite uplifting isn’t it! 😀

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10 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

It never fails to amuse me just how LOUD tiny wrens are!

I agree!

On the other hand my experience of humans is that noise bears v little relation to size....🙂

 

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The blackbird started the dawn chorus at 4:15 this morning, I assume from his favourite perch on the Gable end above the bedroom window where he tends to have a final sing at dusk, well after 9:30pm. The flower full moon was still shining brightly, complementing an irresistible dawn chorus. Good to take some flowers and blossom from the garden to the churchyard for Lynn, three years on but seems like yesterday. Coronavirus has meant the Church is locked; it is usually open 24 hours a day. But the churchyard is always open and idyllic, this morning celebrated by a distant call of a cuckoo. 

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At last I've seen a young bird in my garden, a robin who has instantly become very bossy, there are plenty of other adult birds about but no babies, think it's suddenly going to get crazy but I love it!  Can't remember when I last heard a cuckoo. As well as the peace and quiet, has anyone noticed how clean and healthy the air is these days, I can see things in the distance in such detail too, especially trees, makes me realise how foul the traffic fumes normally are.

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