First Cuckoo of Spring...

Almost the end of February and things are moving....
I heard a Cuckoo as I walked back from checking the post...
fortunately there was none as it would have ended up on the ground.
It was most likely passing through on its way North...
but nice nonetheless!!

Also GrusGrus are saying that large movements of Cranes are occurring in Gallicanta...
so keep your eyes open!

And just now [19:13] we've seen the Barn Owl hunting over the meadow in the evening dim!
I went out to get a better look and followed it over the bief into the field next to the potager...
at which point I had to check my eyes...
something else white was moving...
yes!
There were two, wheeling around each other...
and then they separated and one came back across the meadow...
the otherhunting over the fields either side of the road...
too late now to get them to use the barn owl box...
or the owl slot...
they'll have found a nesting point... and it must be near!
We'll keep you posted.

Until then, here's another of my brother's Barn Owl pictures to keep you entertained...

Nick took this at Sculthorpe Moor near Fakenham in Norfolk

The Sculthorpe Moor flickr site is well worth a visit... 

Nick took this picture on February 8th.

Going cuckoo!

A juvenile Cuckoo [Cuculus canorus] Coucou gris came to our window yesterday evening... very fleeting. It took something off the wall between the kitchen and the lounge and then sat for a moment in the cherry tree... looking straight at us!
How do I know that it is a juvenile... it was still around this morning [but vanished each time before I could photograph it!]... it had a telltale spot of white on the nape of the neck. No photographs... but what follows is a LOT of interesting links.

The Cuckoo is a Red List bird and a number of British nesting Cuckoos have been radio tagged and you can follow some of them on the BTO website on this page.

Two, both back in Africa now, are Lyster [who has a BBC article about him here] who can be followed here and Chris [named after Chris Packham] who can be followed here.
These two have been "followed" now for two journeys south and one back.

A female named Idemili who was tagged this year, was found injured and nursed back to health and has now been given a "lift" to Italy to help her on her way.
These two links have the story:
Cityplanter: Cuckoo hitches lift on a plane after missing migration.
Daily Mail: Freedom cuckoo with business Class BA flight to Italy [This article has the fuller story... the first shows what a sorry state she was in.]
The BTO have not re-tagged her... probably because, as a breeding female, she is too valuable to lose.

I shall see if it is around tomorrow morning, given the wind today... very strong and from the east... it may well have stayed, sheltered in our willows [the last place I saw it disappear] or in the trees along the riverbank. I'm sure that it won't have wanted to waste energy trying to fly into that!

Just think...
it has never seen another Cuckoo...
it is flying alone....
it has around another three and a half thousand miles to go to get to the Congo...
apart from the gross parental neglect, how the **** does it know where to go...
it thinks it is a Reed Warbler or whatever species the mother specialized in imitating the eggs of...
some evolution!

Bonne chance, CouCou!!

Oh! What a beautiful morning... Oh! What a beautiful day!

I've got a wonderful feeling everything's coming my way... TIMBERRRRR!

Pauline and I were enjoying a glass if ice-cold Hoegy by the cherry tree this evening when our attention was drawn, by the cats' behaviour... ears pricked and watching intently, to activity on the opposite side of the bief.
We saw two watervoles, one very dark and one paler chasing each other about... up and down the bank, in and out of the water, too and fro from the bridge to right opposite us. Then all went quiet...

As it got cooler we moved inside to refill glasses and listen to the Archers... Baron was still outside and jumped up onto the window sill  as if asking to come in... then he became interested in the bief again.... and on standing up I saw that the voles were at it again.

Collins Field Guide to Mammals of Britain and Europe cite the chasing about as breeding behaviour... will we be hearing the patter of tiny volefeet soon?

Incidentally, there was a very interesting programme on Auntie Beeb [Radio Four] yesterday about "Darren Tansley - Vole Warrior" It is available on Listen Again.

I will now start the day again...
Having made a New Year's Resolution to walk round the field as often as possible this Spring through to Autumn... I decided to start today... we'd heard a cuckoo, seen a swallow fly past the bedroom window... and I wanted to check out the fritillaries... it was a lovely stroll along the biefside, tripping over bramble and tussock but I saw our first cou-cou and while I was taking a picture of it, a cuckoo started up in the woods next to Bezuard... and like Niall & Antoinettes'... it seemed to be staying put!

Our first "cou-cou"... or Cowslip.

I then found a female Oil Beetle [Meloe proscarabaeus or M. violaceus... the first is more common]... as I have also recently photographed a male, I'll blog about these later with some more info.

Female Oil Beetle. Big girl isn't she... and despite the size of her abdomen, she couldn't half move!!

Strolling on the wier looked a site in the sun... and the older willows are looking well... though some are leaning a bit... I'll turn these into metre high pollards for easy harvesting of pole. A job for tomorrow or Friday... but it must be done before March is out!!

The wier [barrage] giving plenty of aeration to the water flowing over the older rocks.

I turned back along the riverside to look for the fritillaries... but no luck! I noticed that the bramble had been very hard hit by the freeze... this will make it easier to cut back this year... there won't be anything nesting in it at this time... it is too open.

Eventually I got to our non-Sloe bush [flowers much earlier than the Blackthorn...] Pauline is pretty certain it is a hybrid plum-blackthorn... it certainly shows hybrid vigor as can be seen from the two pictures below.

Lovely thick blossom.... will there be a frost?

It was alive with bees [mainly honeybees] and other insects all after the early source of nectar... even a dung fly looking for something a bit tastier.

The bees love this early nectar!

First cuckoo of spring

We heard our first cuckoo cuculus canorus coucou gris yesterday! It sounded more like an "oo-cuck-oo", rather hoarse and rusty, and just the one call, so he was probably just passing through. No photo, naturally - we didn't see him, but the cuckoo has actualy quite a weak call, so if you can hear him, he's close enough to see.