Kitchen Garden Forum

Our first cuckoo arrived yesterday morning, hopefully to stay rather than just passing through. Previous arrivals range from about 20 April to 10 May, so it's just about average this year.

The dawn chorus is really brilliant at the moment, including a very vociferous chiffchaff and blackcap and several willow warblers, as well as all the thrush family. Unfortunately we lost a blackbird's nest from the garden, probably from a cat attack but it could have been a magpie.

Dear Monika, I too love the dawn chorus, we have a large population of Blackirds at the moment, that are competing to see who can sing the loudest.

I had to look up vociferous to see what it meant.

I'm also a dawn chorus fan. It gladdens the heart. I leave the house at 5.30am to go to work and it's wonderful when the dawn chorus first starts in those dark mornings. It's usually the Robins who start it off, followed by the blackbirds around here. This morning we had thick fog but the birdsong was out of this world...almost as if they were singing louder to compensate because the visibility was so poor. But then, I'm just a soppy romantic.... Cheers.

PS. Have yet to hear a cuckoo, though a Tawny Owl was adding to the general chorus yesterday!

DW and I heard a cuckoo when we were out for a Sunday morning stroll at the weekend.
I don't think anyone in Ambridge has heard a cuckoo yet which is how we usually judge whether its early or late. My guess is that even the arrival of a cuckoo there will probably spook Matt Crawford at the moment.

John

"Cuckoo comes in April, Cuckoo sings in May". Bang on cue heard the first one this morning.

Still haven't heard one yet this year