Noisy Little Beggar

[Baldric]

Led in bed early hours (04:00ish) today, Mrs B and Doc both sound out, I heard the first Cuckoo of the year, in fact the first one I've heard since moving to Hernia Bay just over 3 years ago.
Surprising because we have a 30 feet drop to sea level in front of us and a 'cliff' 20 feet + rising behind us, more shxxxhawk territory than Cuckoo in my opinion but good to hear all the same.

[jomifl]

Be you from zummerzet my loverr?

[Patsy33]

I heard a cuckoo about 5 mornings ago. I haven't heard one for years and I was getting worried. So I was elated to hear one!

[Psybbo]

Didn't you know Gness has perfected that sound, Baldric!

[Baldric]

That's scary Sibs

[Hypognosis]

I just heard cuckoo calling on the Dyfi Ospreys webcam.

Ospreys have 3 eggs; Infra Red cam is on and he/she got up to turn around.

[Psybbo]

You might be safe, I think Thursday is quiz night. It's many many years since I heard a cuckoo

[Baldric]

Close call there !
;o)

[Hypognosis]

No warblers/pipits means no openings for cuckoos.

Do you know your warbler songs apart?

I don't think I've ever heard a real-life cuckoo. (Only took up the hobby a few years ago though).

[Baldric]

If you've got 'em you can't mistake 'em.

[Hypognosis]

We don't get the full set (of warblers), in sunny Pembs. Several reedbeds, about the place, but mostly not greater than 200m wide in any direction (no more than pond fringes, really) and a fen/carr, several fields long but barely 500m wide. So I haven't got reed warbler, of all things, on my life list yet.

Cuckoos are, by all accounts, fussy where they drop their eggs and you'd expect them to select the same species which reared them. I'm not sure if they've proven that yet, so pinch of salt. Anyway, if they can't find their target species, they won't hang around in my county, hence I never hear cuckoos here, either.

[jomifl]

I heard a hoopoe a couple of days ago.

[Baldric]

Just a guess, you're not UK based Jom?

[gness]

I heard a cuckoo on my last holiday.....a beautiful and rare sound.....♥

[Baldric]

When we were down near Dover we had one crash land in our garden after being roughed up by our local raptor, it (the Cuckoo) was so distinctive, only time I've ever seen one.

[gness]

A couple of years ago, in Ireland, I spent an age watching a finch feed a baby cuckoo......it worked so hard to feed this huge baby that wasn't hers.....

Cruel bird, the cuckoo.....but so clever............

I've only seen a Hoopoe in France......funny birds.....and I recently heard a Corncrake.....a sound from my childhood but again becoming rare....x

[Hypognosis]

Hoopoe sightings in UK are not unknown. Follow your local county's blog, if there is one.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/h/hoopoe/

[gness]

Hi, Hypo......yes, I know someone who's spotted one down south.....none ever reported in my neck of the woods.....well, that I've known about.

We have a very good birding site in Northants which I follow.....and I have some serious birding friends who tip me off when there's something a bit unusual in the area.....x

[jomifl]

You are dead right Baldric, SW France in fact. The first time I came across a hoopoe I identified it from its call(as described in Peterson et al.), it then appeared a few minutes later. I was amazed that I made the connection and that the description of the call was that accurate and that I remembered it.