Hi all
Went across the road for my usual walk to see if I could take any photos, and I heard my first Cuckoo of the year so far.
I saw a pair of Lapwings and a pair of Sparrowhawks, but no sighting of the Cuckoo
Best wishes Chris
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Nice one Chris!! Do love to hear the cuckoo! Not heard one yet but will keep an eye out now! Skye was where I heard the most cuckoos in my life!! Wherever I went I heard them! Flying cuckoos can look remarky like a small bird of prey by the way (as you say you saw sparrowhawks!)
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
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Hi Chris,
sounds like you had a good walk! I heard a Cuckoo (I think, we won't discuss my useless bird calls again, lol) on Sunday too.
I was just about to echo MarJus and say that the Cuckoo in flight does look similar to a Sparrowhawk - its in one of my books as a 'confusion species'.
Did you take any photos too by the way? Apologies if I have missed them.
Rockwolf said:Flying cuckoos can look remarky like a small bird of prey by the way (as you say you saw sparrowhawks!)
Hi MarJus & Paul
The Cuckoo sounded to me like it was in the woods at the bottom of the field.
I know of a pair of Sparrowhawks that are nest buiding in a large oak tree at the top of the field, and I could hear one (presumably the female) telling the other one to get off his backside and fetch some food.
The male flew past me from the tree at a rate of knots and although I got some photos in flight they weren't focussed well enough for me so they have been binned.
The Lapwings weren't good enough either.
Onwards and upwards! Tomorrow is another day
Just as a matter of interest this field I go into across the road from my house, is the cane field where the fire was that was in our local paper. It was started by a combine harvester while the farmer was cutting down the cane. It isn't a good photo because it's the 100mm end of my 100-400mm zoom lens, but the adult figure in the foreground should give you an idea how extensive the fire was. If you look at the left front corner of the photo, there is almost as much distance of field up the hill as well. Those canes are taller than me. I'm 5'6" and I couldn't see much around me before, but I can now: