Too early for a cuckoo?

[spannulman]

I was sat out late this afternoon as I bumped a parcel of prickets at lunchtime when I went to check the camera at a local farm. No stag in the freezer unfortunately but whilst sat there I heard a cuckoo. The copse i was in is 50yd from a road and houses and the area is rammed with families and groups walking. As an aside, today I saw something new; a group of men my age, not young fellas, in walking gear but all carrying and drinking from a can of beer. Fosters of all things so not proper beer.

anyhow, It feels super early for a cuckoo and until about five years ago we hadn’t had cuckoos back here for a number of years. But I heard it Clear as day. then a few mins later I heard a young child shouting “cook o, cook o” so now am wondering whether they were mimickng the bird or were they with an adult who was a very good mimic?

i shan’t lose sleep over Whether I heard a person or the bird but what do people think? Is early March too soon for a cuckoo in the Peak District, or anywhere?

 

[Mungo]

I have seen (but not heard) them the first week of March in Cambridgeshire

 

[Dan Gliballs]

It is early for the cuckoo but with that said the owls around here are hooting all day long so anything is possible.

 

[Apthorpe]

I thought I heard one call this morning, but only once.

 

[Fair Hill]

Collard doves can sound very like them sometimes, I though I heard a Cuckoo recently and that's what it turned out to be.

 

[old keeper]

When I was a boy we had some Germam POWs billeted near us. They were a decent bunch and made us kids wooden toys. One made me a bird shaped cuickoo call as a Christmas present. It was very lifelike and I went out blowing it on Boxing Day. The local paper was full of the fact that a cuckoo had been heard on Boxing Day!

 

[Waz77]

I heard one last week

 

[Milk no sugar please]

Could have sworn I heard one yesterday

 

[deerstalker.308]

It is early for the cuckoo but with that said the owls around here are hooting all day long so anything is possible.

This is quite normal for tawnys...... very early for cuckoo though!

 

[opticron1]

No cuckoo here yet, but we've got a woodpecker that is getting more noisy in the trees to the back of us, definitely announcing its territory! Added to that we've have a fine cock pheasant that has taken to calling outside the front door at 5am - probably answering the tawny own in the tree opposite.......bloody springtime...... I'll swap you the cuckoo for my lot!

 

[User00035]

Thomas Hardy said spring has arrived when indoor folk claim to have heard the cuckoo and outdoor folk reply that they had heard him several days before.

 

[timbrayford]

The tracked cuckoos are still in Africa Cuckoo Tracking Project

 

[User00035]

No cuckoo here yet, but we've got a woodpecker that is getting more noisy in the trees to the back of us, definitely announcing its territory! Added to that we've have a fine cock pheasant that has taken to calling outside the front door at 5am - probably answering the tawny own in the tree opposite.......bloody springtime...... I'll swap you the cuckoo for my lot!

I have a heron that flies across late at night and makes the most horrendous racket. He waits until I've just about nodded off then lets out a massive honking screech as he flies over the house.

 

[bogtrotter]

No cuckoo's here the penguins keep driving them off.

 

[kes]

Why would a cuckoo bother - no nests to filch ?
Maybe they like egrets ?

 

[Tim.243]

Looking through some of the proposals made by sd members, then look or listen no further than on here...

 

[Farmer_J]

No cuckoo but have had a Raven turn up recently.

 

[User00025]

No cuckoo's here the penguins keep driving them off.

Plenty in Somerset.

 

[Heym SR20]

The Spring Equinox is about when many migratory birds turn up. So yes it’s early but not that early

 

[dartmoordog]

No Cuckoo as yet, but it is going to be a hot summer.......The Rooks are flying upside down!