If you think about it the Cuckoo has some unfortunate sayings attached to herself. The two which spring to mind are 'going cuckoo' and 'a cuckoo in the nest'. See? Wouldn't that annoy you if it was yourself??
There have been studies lately about the migratory habits of cuckoos, and we were all brought up on stories of their charming habit of laying eggs in other birds nests and then their hatchling turfing out the legitimate heirs and gobbling all it can get, Goldilocks eat yer heart out...
But DESPITE all that, when the cuckoo arrives on our hilltop and starts calling from the forest it is the most cheerful sound! Its like the first daffodil, I know that the seasons will eventually change and just for a moment my heart flies upwards. She's been with us nearly three weeks now and every morning and evening I listen for her- come rain or shine her 'cuckoo' echoes.
Judging from what I've heard, we're the lucky ones to hear her, some folks haven't heard a cuckoo in years. I do hope she keeps returning.
3 comments:
The cuckoo's call is a sign of early summer to me too. We have been hearing it for almost two weeks now, but "after Midsummer they will get a barley awn in their throat and stop singing". DH has actually seen a cuckoo flying over our yard last year and this year too.
I hadn't heard a cuckoo for years, but was pretty sure that I heard one when I was out with the dog a week or so ago. I've been back that way several times but haven't heard it again, so perhaps I was mistaken. And I'm certain that it wasn't a pigeon! But my heart lifted when I heard it, it's such a sure sign of summer.
I don't know that I've ever heard one. There is, however, a blinking wood pigeon who sits on my chimney with its irritating call: cuck-coo-ah that i would be delighted to never hear again!
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