The reserve is absolutely beautiful this time of year, a sea of every shade of green, a myriad chlorophyll created hues, from light lime green to dark spinach green. This evening, even at this tardy week in midsummer a male cuckoo echoed his disyllabic song muffled through the impenetrable close-leaved sallows. How many more days will he throw out his plea and threat to listening brethren and sisters?
Potential suitors may well have left for sunnier climes, some tagged birds were already in Northern France a couple of weeks ago bound for sub-Saharan Africa. The last female I heard in the distance from Sweeney Viewpoint was Friday the fourteenth of June.
A couple of years ago I calculated the NwH cuckoos were only here for 84 days in total. This meant that two years ago they were gone by the 8th of July, that day is several days away, the old adage says 'one swallow does not a summer make'! Equally 'No cuckoo does not a summer end'!
Here are a few colours to colour the Northward Hill world towards the end of June!