Nature Spring Diary 9th May
- 9 May 07, 05:47 PM
Picture taken by Tommy Holden/BTO
The highlights of this blog will be broadcast on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 4 at 9pm Monday 28th May and at 11am Tuesday 29th May, so tell us about the spring things happening near you - post a comment below.
You can also e-mail us your spring photos to add to our photo-gallery: nhuradio@bbc.co.uk
At last, I’ve caught up with many of you who’ve seen your first cuckoo. Mine was not here in Shropshire but 200 miles away at 4 o’clock in the morning on Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire. Slightly traumatised at being up that time in the morning, I was waiting for the dawn chorus walk to assemble outside the visitor centre at Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve when the cuckoo‘s call burst from the darkness.
Wicken Fen is a special place of birds, an oasis of wild life in a shrunken, beaten land which once was endless fen but now stinks of harvested leeks. I spent the day, from dawn till dusk, wandering the reed beds and scrub, along lodes - the canal-like waterways, and droves - paths through the fen. And although the place was full of birds I wanted to see - marsh harrier, hobby, woodcock, reed bunting - I've never seen so many cuckoos in one place.
As I was watching one cuckoo, firing its crossbow-like form across the sky to land in a willow, another cuckoo shot out of the tree across the fen. There were no bubbling cries of female cuckoos but the male calls came from every direction. Apparently more are expected to arrive and one of the reasons for this is the abundance of their ‘host’ species, reed warbler.
Despite a strong, cold wind, all the warblers were in fine voice: grasshopper warblers that sound like fishing reels, the creaking phrases of reed warblers, sharp flint-napping notes of willow warblers and the explosive charge of cettis warblers from low scrub. But the explanations for why these songs have so much power - breeding, territory etc - don’t seem to capture the effect their construction of an aural landscape has on us. And that seems particularly true of the cuckoo. I heard my first cuckoo at dawn and the last one at dusk, so that’s my fix and I now feel that spring is real and the world still works. Lets hope they return to my patch in Shropshire and yours too, if they haven’t arrived yet.
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I haven't heard a cuckoo yet this year. In South Yorkshire, where I live, they seem to be getting scarcer every year.
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That's true, Roger B. I was talking to the British Trust for Ornithology and it seems that Yorkshire and the North-East are a bit of a cuckoo blackspot. Although they said that there were sightings from all across the rest of the country from about mid April onwards. So some of us have just been unlucky.
Everyone I speak to, though, feels that there are far fewer cuckoos around than there used to be.
In case it's of interest, they also mentioned a World Migratory Birds Day, or pair of days, today and tomorrow. There are details at
www.worldmigratorybirdday.org
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Yes at last I have heard the cuckoo!! I was getting rather worried but it is at least 2 weeks late um! strange,
that was two weeks ago .have not heard it again.no Swifts!either, not many swallows,
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The May weather seems to have gone from one extreme to the other. It's now more like a monsoon. Can someone explain how / why this is happening?
I have not heard another cuckoo since the distant one last reported, however, I am pleased to see that the change of weather also brought a pair of grey waggies to the garden - who are currently busy nest building.
The weather means that the children are now forced to stay inside - and that means an excellent opportunity to catch up with their homework! My eldest has written as part of his review of a novel by Mary Wollstencraft; "a tale of man searching for deification but learning, to his doom, that we are all victim to our own flawed humanity".
While on the subject of Frankenstein, I read that Gordon Brown seeks to counter the Cameron green initiative with his own, and is proposing five new green cities.
Why do our politicians keep missing the point?
If, as Ed convincingly describes, we deify the economy and associated consumerism, then Gordon surely is our high priest.
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I don't approve of cuckoos. They have nasty habits and I'm glad not to have seen or heard one this year so far.
We have our own cuckoo's chick here; it's called a new town. Its egg was planted between comfortable old towns and villages and it's been squeezing the life out of its hosts since it hatched.
Fly away cuckoo!
George,
Wellington under The Wrekin.
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... but, but cuckolded George
Without you wouldn't have that wonderful palace to consumerism - the TTC (Telford Town Centre), branded family entertainment units (wot used to be called pubs), square miles of colourful boxes to work in, the old shafts filled and a skating rink.
You don't know you're born!
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How many other wildlife bloggers are there out there? I've been enjoying this blog so much that I'm wondering who is doing similar things. And as a radio producer, I've been wondering whether there may be ways that this can all feed into our programmes in future.
Roger B. is one such blogger, or at least
Don't forget that we'll be turning the writing that everyone has been contributing to this blog into a radio programme on May 28 at 9 p.m. and May 29 at 11 a.m.on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 4. And that program will be available online on our Nature website
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April 2007 UK Weather records
In UK April 2007 was the warmest on record, it was also the sunniest on record. Most days there was a total absence of clouds which for this dismal country is highly unusual. People are commenting on the strength of the Sun.
The media and Ö÷²¥´óÐã weather experts report these record surface temperatures are due to CO2 induced global warming, when the obvious correlation is the record lack of clouds. No explanation is even attempted for the lack of clouds.
The sunniest years are not unexpectedly the warmest years, and there is a well founded theory by the Danish Sun research team that explains the lack of clouds. Cloud cover is decreasing year on year over the whole planet due to the record strength of the Sun's Gravity field.
Can anyone offer a better explanation for the record lack of clouds. Or is my view just too simple.
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I've not heard any yet eithr and I'm in the middle of the wiltshire countryside, there is a construction site near me, but I walk the dog away from there and still have not heard one this year.
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Earlier today in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, Sunday 20 May, we saw our first fledging cuckoo being fed by our frequent visitor starlings. Having never seen a cuckoo in our garden before this was quite a surprise! The fledging was slightly larger than the starlings and very persistent in its demands for food. Other regular visitors to our bird table include Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Blackbirds, Sparrows, Collared Doves, Wood Pigeons and only once have we seen a pair of green finches. Watching the birds squabble over who gets to feed from the fat ball does make washing up more bearable!
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It is interesting to read this blog on birds. I am both a tiger andbird lover. We have Indian cuckoo, Eurasian Cuckoo, Common Hawk cuckoo and grey bellied cuckoo in Central India
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It is interesting to read this blog on birds. I am both a tiger andbird lover. We have Indian cuckoo, Eurasian Cuckoo, Common Hawk cuckoo and grey bellied cuckoo in Central India. My thnx to wild life bloggers.
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I've just got back from a trip to the Scottish Highlands, where there was no shortage of cuckoos.
Is it just me or do common whitethroats seem to be anything but common this spring?
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I heard the cuckoo Sunday 20th May whilst walking by Rydall Water in Cumbria.
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I was interested to hear this morning about the threat to cuckoos [which I dislike because of their habits]. I live on the Suffolk coast, a couple of miles south of Minsmere. For the last two years I have been conscious of a cuckoo nearby; however, I realised the other day that I have not heard the call at all this year.
Helen D. Gardner
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I was interested to hear this morning about the threat to cuckoos [which I dislike because of their habits]. I live on the Suffolk coast, a couple of miles south of Minsmere. For the last two years I have been conscious of a cuckoo nearby; however, I realised the other day that I have not heard the call at all this year.
Helen D. Gardner
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I have not heard a cuckoo in Warwickshire this year.
They used to be quite common in Jersey where I lived until 3 years ago.
Also when the lack red squirrels are spoken of, nobody mentions that Jersey has an exclusively red population islandwide.
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