Nature post of the day: cuckoo

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For a while now I‘ve been listening out for the arrival of the cuckoo but heard nothing apart from the odd false alarm of a pigeon with a cough – until this morning when finally that distinctive call drifted across to my bedroom window. The poor cuckoo must have had a shock if he arrived overnight at the end of his long journey, because last night we had quite a hard frost! Lovely sunny morning though. I haven’t heard him again today but according to the old rhyme The cuckoo comes in April In May he sings all day At the end of June he changes his tune, and In July he flies away So in a few days he should be in full song. Of course I haven’t got a photo of a cuckoo, they are notoriously hard to spot even if you can manage to locate the bird from its call, so instead here are some cuckoo flowers. They are reputed to bloom at around the time the cuckoo arrives, and sure enough this morning I saw lots of them in the damp riverside meadow. Have you heard a cuckoo yet? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2016.