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23 minutes ago, Stilllearning said:

We heard the first cuckoo of the year yesterday, while out walking with the dog. Perhaps spring has arrived at last, after a winter thateveryone here agrees has been a long cold and wet one. Has anyone else heard cuckoos yet?

It must be one of the very first!  Of the Cuckoos being satellite tracked by the BTO the furthest north is just north of Linares Spain.   The others are still in sub Saharan west Africa.

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46 minutes ago, Stilllearning said:

We heard the first cuckoo of the year yesterday, while out walking with the dog. Perhaps spring has arrived at last, after a winter thateveryone here agrees has been a long cold and wet one. Has anyone else heard cuckoos yet?

Are you sure it wasn't a pigeon with a stammer?

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Some average arrival dates may help in cuckoo finding.

Cuckoos at Bird Observatories.

Portland              Bardsey               Skokholm               Calf of Man

19th April             26th  April           3rd May                 30th April

 

Area examples.

Hampshire       West Midlands         Leicestershire          Lancashire           Shetland

4th April            12th April             13th April                 19th  April           9th May

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Cuckoos are becoming rarer and rarer in the UK. In the past 4 years I've only got near them a couple of times. Another few weeks before the appear I think.

Here is a shot of one I took last May up on Fair Isle, Shetland. Cracking Birds.

 

 

d500 a 6965-.jpg

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16 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Cuckoos are becoming rarer and rarer in the UK. In the past 4 years I've only got near them a couple of times. Another few weeks before the appear I think.

Here is a shot of one I took last May up on Fair Isle, Shetland. Cracking Birds.

 

 

d500 a 6965-.jpg

What a cracking photo! 

I have never seen one in this country. I have seen a couple of different species in The Gambia one of which could have been a bird that would be heading back to Britain now. It is sobering to realise how long we sat in a plane to get there without having to flap our wings to make progress 

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4 hours ago, Jerra said:

It must be one of the very first!  Of the Cuckoos being satellite tracked by the BTO the furthest north is just north of Linares Spain.   

Or a particularly stentorian one.

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Bit further South  but ours have been making their voices heard for the last 3/4 weeks Also the Buzzards seem to have managed OK a few years back we used to have up to a dozen thermaling over the hill at the back of the house & they dwindled to around 3 last year but the other morning I counted 7 Sorry don't agree re the Cuckoo being a cracking bird It's bone idle depriving a much smaller species it's chance to reproduce & then gets the same poor bird to hatch & bring up it's off spring

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48 minutes ago, X Alan W said:

Bit further South  but ours have been making their voices heard for the last 3/4 weeks Also the Buzzards seem to have managed OK a few years back we used to have up to a dozen thermaling over the hill at the back of the house & they dwindled to around 3 last year but the other morning I counted 7 Sorry don't agree re the Cuckoo being a cracking bird It's bone idle depriving a much smaller species it's chance to reproduce & then gets the same poor bird to hatch & bring up it's off spring

I'm glad I dont  have to fly from Africa up to Scandinavia every Spring.:) Hardly idle?

 

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3 hours ago, X Alan W said:

Bit further South  but ours have been making their voices heard for the last 3/4 weeks 

That is truly amazing I suggest you report it to your local county bird recorder, I can probably supply contact details.  Which county?

As you will see above the earliest average arrival date is around 4th April and won't vary much more than a week either way.

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8 minutes ago, Jerra said:

That is truly amazing I suggest you report it to your local county bird recorder, I can probably supply contact details.  Which county?

As you will see above the earliest average arrival date is around 4th April and won't vary much more than a week either way.

I think you will find Alan is down in northern Spain......hence the difference.

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11 hours ago, Jerra said:

That is truly amazing I suggest you report it to your local county bird recorder, I can probably supply contact details.  Which county?

As you will see above the earliest average arrival date is around 4th April and won't vary much more than a week either way.

 

11 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

I think you will find Alan is down in northern Spain......hence the difference.

Nope wrong side of the Pyrenees South West France around 150Km from the boarder

 

11 hours ago, Jerra said:

Ah that explains it.  Still interesting as the first of the BTO satellite tracked Cuckoos is has only just reached mid Spain.

We have lived in this part of VERY rural France since 2004 & AFAIR only one spring since then has the cuckoo failed to call in late March early April where we are is a sort of Mini climate as the winds sweeping from the west are disturbed/deflected by the Pyrenees & Massif Centrale resulting in odd weather patterns that can change in a very short period of time example wind W/E go indoors for a cupa & on returning outside the wind will be blowing in a completely different direction

Edited by X Alan W
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4 minutes ago, X Alan W said:

 

Nope wrong side of the Pyrenees South West France around 150Km from the boarder

 

We have lived in this part of VERY rural France since 2004 & AFAIR only one spring since then has the cuckoo failed to call in late March early April where we are is a sort of Mini climate as the winds sweeping from the west are disturbed/deflected by the Pyrenees & Massif Centrale resulting in odd weather patterns that can change in a very short period of time example wind W/E go indoors for a cupa & on returning outside the wind will be blowing in a completely different direction

What has your winter been like? Here we have had a long wet and miserable time since November, with snow then, and in January February and the start of March. The spring may have finally arrived though, 23c yesterday.

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7 hours ago, Stilllearning said:

What has your winter been like? Here we have had a long wet and miserable time since November, with snow then, and in January February and the start of March. The spring may have finally arrived though, 23c yesterday.

Slightly wetter than the last 2 or so winters around 2" more rain fall than usual 2 separate lots of snow #1 around 4" but only lasted 3  or so days #2 couple of inches but disappeared by lunch the next day around a dozen mornings that the grass has been white (frost) but we have had more than usual winds from the North East so the wind chill has been worse than usual  all the trees are in bud the hazel nut have shed their catkins we have Daffs cowslips forsythia all blooming in the garden & the One of our dozen or so cherry trees & a couple of the Mirabelle plum trees are in blossom hope we don't get a frost as that will muck every thing up Thought the Woodpile would last but if we have to have more than 3 or so fires I'll have to start on next winters stack should be OK though as I 've in total some 12 cubic metres that's been seasoning a couple of years + around 30 Cubic metres for 2019/20 split & stacked last autumn Out of the wind it's 25c & the wind just veered to blow from the south west

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17 hours ago, X Alan W said:

Slightly wetter than the last 2 or so winters around 2" more rain fall than usual 2 separate lots of snow #1 around 4" but only lasted 3  or so days #2 couple of inches but disappeared by lunch the next day around a dozen mornings that the grass has been white (frost) but we have had more than usual winds from the North East so the wind chill has been worse than usual  all the trees are in bud the hazel nut have shed their catkins we have Daffs cowslips forsythia all blooming in the garden & the One of our dozen or so cherry trees & a couple of the Mirabelle plum trees are in blossom hope we don't get a frost as that will muck every thing up Thought the Woodpile would last but if we have to have more than 3 or so fires I'll have to start on next winters stack should be OK though as I 've in total some 12 cubic metres that's been seasoning a couple of years + around 30 Cubic metres for 2019/20 split & stacked last autumn Out of the wind it's 25c & the wind just veered to blow from the south west

Everyone here, British and French, has been talking of nothing but how foul, long, cold, and wet the winter has been. Looking just now at the Metéo 60 website I see that you are probably being rained upon right now? For a change it is dry here, and last night we heard the frog chorus from the stream at the foot of the hill for the first time this year.

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6 hours ago, Stilllearning said:

Everyone here, British and French, has been talking of nothing but how foul, long, cold, and wet the winter has been. Looking just now at the Metéo 60 website I see that you are probably being rained upon right now? For a change it is dry here, and last night we heard the frog chorus from the stream at the foot of the hill for the first time this year.

Dull today but no rain cold enough for a bit of 'Chuffage" The old Back Lab went for a sniff but only out around10 or so mins then parked himself in front of the workshop stove

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1 hour ago, Stilllearning said:

It was heard in the woods by the railway line just outside the town of Le Dorat, 87210 France.

Other cuckoos are no doubt available in other woods around France :)

 

As i "work" servicing Chainsaws, logging equipment,  for a trying to earn a living company we come in contact with a goodly number of trees in forest woodland, plantations, etc needless to say on firing up the saw/s the call of the Cuckoo & most other bird song ceases my hearing of the cuckoo was Dept 46 Lot near to it's southern border

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