Kitchen Garden Forum

I'm so chuffed. I was woken at 5 a.m. this morning by the sound of a cuckoo. I don't think I've heard one for a couple of years round here and really missed it, so was delighted to hear one again. But I thought cuckoos always returned to the same location to mate and nest, which raises the question, "If no cuckoo has been around for two years, how did this one know where to come?" Perhaps there has been one during the past couple of years, but as I spend a lot of time out in the garden I would have expected to have heard it at some point. Perhaps this one's Sat Nav wasn't working properly!

Hi Primrose,
I suppose you have Peacock eggs as well as Cuckoo's nests. I heard that in the Buckinghamshire area a Unicorn has been spotted!
JB.

Aren't all unicorns spotted?

It must be my week for spotting rare creatures. Whilst walking down a local footpath, I spotted two beautiful stag beetles meandering along. They're magnificent to watch in flight. They've been breeding there for several years in the slowly rotting fallen tree trunks which have been left there to decay. Our local council were about to have the the tree trunks removed and couldn't understand why we kicked up such a fuss about wanting the "rubbish" to be left, until we explained that they were the breeding grounds for these creatures. Sometimes clearing up too much is not a good thing for nature.

and i have been marvelling at the curlew over the last few days - I even had to stop a talk I was doing to the local WI taking them round the vines to let the curlew have its say !!

I've heard a cuckoo this year but was at my sister's not from my graden I'm afraid.

Good news for the resident dunnocks though! MIne not my sister's residents.