Looking For Cuckoos
Traditionally Spring is associated with hearing the first cuckoo
, well known for its distinctive call and unique lifestyle. In fact, it is far from being the first of the migrant birds to return but it is certainly one of the first to leave again, heading back to Africa in August. Cuckoos are, of course, now rare in the UK and no one is quite sure whether this is as a result of the very specialised conditions they need for breeding or issues back in Africa. In order to increase your chances of seeing one its probably best to try and understand a little bit more about its lifestyle.
The cuckoo is a dove-sized bird with blue grey upper parts, head and chest with dark barred white under parts. With their sleek body, long tail and pointed wings they are not unlike kestrels or sparrowhawks. Sexes are similar and the young are brown. They are summer visitors and well-known brood parasites, the females laying their eggs in the nests of other birds, especially meadow pipits, dunnocks and reed warblers.
This should give us a clue as to where to look for them. They need to watch their host nests carefully in order to lay their egg at exactly the right time, too early or too late it will not be accepted by the host bird. Therefore, the best place to try and find them is sitting in a tree overlooking areas where their host bird nests hence trees over looking moorland (for meadow pipits) and marshy areas (for reed warblers) are where you are more likely to see one.
Each female Cuckoo specialises in using a particular host species and will lay eggs with similar markings to the host bird's eggs, and the young Cuckoo will imitate the begging calls of the host's chicks. When the Cuckoo nestling hatches, it instinctively pushes the other eggs and nestlings out of the nest.
Despite what could be regarded as an unworthy lifestyle cuckoos are still seen by many as representing all that is good about the UK countryside. In the words of the famous Lake District poet William Wordsworth
O blithe new-comer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice:
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?
While I am lying on the grass
Thy twofold shout I hear;
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off and near.
Though babbling only to the vale
Of sunshine and of flowers
Thou bringest unto me a tale
Of visionary hours.
Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!
Even yet thou art to me
No bird, but an invisible thing
A voice, a mystery;
The same whom in my school-boy days
I listen'd to; that cry
Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky.
To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green:
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still long'd for, never seen!
And I can listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.
O blessed bird! the earth we pace
Again appears to be
An unsubstantial, fairy place
That is fit home for Thee!
Walking to see cuckoos, and indeed any other wildlife, is one of the great delights of life for me and I would encourage everyone to get the most from the great outdoors that surrounds them.
by: Bruno Blackstone
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