It's strange how coincidence works isn't it? I don't think I have thought of the cuckoo for years. Then, suddenly on Saturday I thought of it - how we always 'waited' for the first cuckoo call when we were children, how we always came running home to tell everybody we had heard the cuckoo - that odd bird that lays its egg in the nest of another bird because it is too 'lazy' to bring its own child up. That is what we always said.
Thinking about it on Saturday for some reason, I wondered how long it was since I had actually heard the cuckoo. So long that I really can't remember. Then on Saturday, in the night, I dreamt I heard it - it kept calling and I woke in the morning with this odd feeling that I had heard the cuckoo. Then on Sunday, reading Monty Don again, I turned the page and there was his article on the Cuckoo! Cuckoo numbers are down 65 per cent since the early 1980's so that, coupled with the fact that their favourite birds for using to rear their offspring are pipits or reed buntings - maybe there are more of these in Lincolnshire where I grew up than there are up here in the Yorkshire Dales.
Interestingly he also points out that we can hardly accuse these strange birds of coming 'home' to lay their eggs because they spend at least seventy percent of their year in Africa - that is their home. He says they are 'every bit as African as Gorillas'
But we did look for them as one of the pointers to the arrival of Spring. I am not sure what I look for now. Do you have a day when you see or hear something which confirms for you that Spring is here? Snowdrops appear - always a delightful sight - and we are inclined to say that it won't be long before Spring. Then the early daffodils confirm this. But somehow there has to be more - maybe the arrival of the first swallow (we had many at the farm - always a lone one (male) would arrive and for perhaps a week he would sit on the wires waiting before another arrived), or perhaps a smell in the air, or the first 'sticky buds' on the horse chestnuts.
Let's see if between us we can compile a list of what we look for as the first sign that Spring is actually here. It can't come soon enough can it? Heavy rain and localised flooding 'promised' here this week. So let's try and ignore it and think of Spring.
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53 comments:
Funnily enough I was reading that same account last night. He also mentions the demise of House Martins. Here on Sheppey, when I was a youngster almost every road and street in the town had their annual House Martin colonies. Those houses are still there and yet two years ago I made a deliberate attempt to drive to most places on the Island and found just two nests! They are virtually extinct here now and are greatly missed. Swallows are not faring much better.
I did hear a cuckoo last scribblings because of the lack of traffic.
Last spring
I haven't heard a cuckoo for about 3 years. Isn't odd how we say THE cuckoo the same as we say THE fox? The fox got the chickens, not a fox got them.
Here it’s forsythia. An import, but with 80+ years here. And some are blooming already! That’s the first, joyful yellow color.
Here, in Ontario, my signs of spring are: red-winged blackbirds, spring peepers (little frogs? toads?), snowdrops. -Jenn
A funny coincidence following your own. After reading your post, I checked the book depository website for Monty Don's book and what should I see on the opening display page but a fiction book for sale with the title "The Cuckoo's Calling." :)
I loved to hear the cuckoo, in spite of their rather nasty habits but haven't heard one for many years. The first sign of Spring for me is that first day when it is warm enough to open the windows for a bit, my husband cuts the lawn, I am gardening, there are tadpoles in our pond and a blackbird is singing. There is something very distinctive about the sounds and smells of that day. My harbingers of spring are snowdrops. Whatever the weather chucks at them they cope with it and cheer us up.
I love your cuckoo coincidences.
Here, on the east coast of Sweden, it's the arrival of the first Northern Lapwings and Barnacle Geese that signal spring. On the ground, it's the first coltsfoot appearing.
The newspapers always print the first reports of coltsfoot and often also the return of the cranes to Lake Hornborga, But that's south west of where I am and we only see the cranes pass later on, once they have done their courtship dance and are heading north to their summer breeding grounds.
Living as I do on the coast, we are the equivalent of a rest stop on the M1 of the bird migratory path, so in a prime position to see different birds as they wing their way north or south. Interestingly enough we still have cuckoos here. There is one in the woods behind our house and we hear it early in the mornings in summer.
In Scotland I always thought the weather was improving when I heard the oyster catchers, we lived inland so they weren’t around all the time. In Italy we always hear the cuckoo, my Yorkshire farmer brother mentioned last time he was here that he hadn’t heard one for years, we get nightingales too which were new to me and delightful.
Spring is a way away yet. First signs later will be crocuses coming out in March. Snowdrops for me are a beautiful winter flower.
For me it's seeing buds on the trees- then I can believe spring us truly on its way. Viv
I heard the Cuckoo many times last year, but it was the first time in many years that I'd heard it here; I put it down to everywhere being quieter during lockdown and Cuckoos lingering here rather than flying on elsewhere. I always listen for the sound of the Chiffchaff, which is optimistic of me because they start arriving in early March, long before most people are thinking about Spring.
A lot of Chiffchaffs overwinter in this country nowadays.
So odd, your cuckoo experience.
Yellow is the color of spring for me. Where I live, the earliest flowers are daffodils and forsythia.
Spring for me is when we see the first crocus and the pale green fuzz of baby leaves on the trees which have been bare for so many months.
The first sign of spring for me is when some Anemones appear in the garden.
The first daffodil is one I look out for in the garden; I bring it in and put it in solitary splendour in a tall narrow vase to enjoy and smell as I walk past.
The first swifts arrive in Sheffield end of May/beginning of June and their screaming around the rooftops are such a welcome sight and sound.
I don't even know what a cuckoo sounds or looks like so maybe we don't have them where I live?
When I see the little green spikes of the bulbs planted in my garden, I know Spring is coming soon. But I have had daffodils and tulips sagging in the snow so Spring is inconsistent at first!
Thanks for this lovely, thought-provoking post!
First sign of spring is the sound of trickling of water in the ditches underneath the snow banks that are beginning to melt.
Forsythia blooming, crocus & daffodils, tulips ... the first robin ... all harbingers of the coming Spring ... along with trees bursting forth with blossoms! So many signs to look for!
Spring ... it can't happen soon enough!! LOL
I already have paperwhite narcissis blooming here in the Sierra Nevada foothills of northern California. The forsythia is late this year. Those are winter bloomers where I live. The sound of migrating geese heading north is my harbinger of spring.
Spring has truly come when one of the oak trees that keeps its leaves all winter has lost every leaf.
I think, here in North Texas, it will be difficult to know when Spring arrives. Yes, as the above commenter says, the oak trees will get new leaves, Otherwise, it doesn't seem that winter ever arrived, I have five colors of gerbera daisies in the front yard right now, in mid January. My pincushion plant is full of flowers, as are many dianthus and sage plants. Yesterday as I was walking our dogs, I had to take off my long sleeves. Too warm. I have lived in Texas all my life. I remember many years of cold, often with snow, winters. No more. I enjoyed having seasons, and wearing coats and putting shorts away for several months. I hear so many of you longing for warmer days. But, believe me, you would miss winter if you no longer had it. And Spring wouldn't be so special.
For me, Spring has arrived when I see the first daffodil open on the way into our town. Some years ago the local hospice planted hundreds of daffodils on each side of the main road. Last year they made a fantastic display.I always write the date down so I can track how the seasons are changing.
Seeing the first purple Martin, a swallow like bird, always means spring is on the way. Swamp maples bloom here early and are probably beginning to show color now. Louisiana
I loved listening to the cuckoo as a child in Suffolk. We had house martin nests under the eaves of our old house which were used year after year. Good memories. Spring here is the sound of frogs. We always seem to have one lost soul who wakes up before the others, desperately peeping and hoping for an answer. I wait for them each year as they are a good indicator of the health of our environment.
The smell in an aspen woods when the first sap begins to move! It's a very sweet smell.
Here in the colder states the Robin is often the first sign of Spring. The American Robin is a ground feeder and I am always excited when I see one running around the yard looking for worms. Soon after that our Redbud tree will get tiny buds and I know Spring is here.
In my area of Northern Indiana, USA, heavy rains and flooding would be a sign of spring. But my favorite sign is the sight and sound of Sandhill Cranes, flying in formation so high in the sky that you can just see them as little black dots, but their wild call echoes for long distances as they wing their way north from winter quarters to summer habitat. Wonderful and wild.
Looking out of my bathroom window on Saturday I spotted my first snow drops of the season. The daffodils are poking above the ground...it’s mid January but those are harbingers of Spring for me.
As to Cuckoos, I hear them many times when in the garden....now hedgehogs, I have not seen. I envy Rachel and her hedgehogs.
Your obsession with me is becoming unhealthy Traveller.
It fascinates me how birds must have a completely different plan of the earth in their heads than ourselves. Seas, rivers and hills are not barriers for them. Journeys that seem extraordinary to us, who live on the ground, must seem quite normal to them, who live in the air.
Very, very early spring brings out the tiny May peep frogs in rain filled ditches along roads, our American Robins return late in February, and the males start singing loudly in early morning, just before daylight,to stake out their territory and attract a mate, mourning doves start cooing very early in the morning, daffodils start to bloom.
I am looking forward to seeing all of them soon.
For myself in West Central Nebraska,U.S., Spring sounds are the beautiful sound of Sandhill Cranes making their pilgrimage to Canada. Stopping to rest and recharge on the North and South Platte rivers.
Denimflyz in Nebraska
Thanks everyone for all the reminders. I shall put a list on tomorrow.
We have a few crocus out, daffs coming up, the odd forsythia flower. All good signs, but not there yet.
Here it is traditionally the robins. My grandmother who lived in Florida would always call me to tell me that they were on their way. So I guess grandma violet's call was the first sign of spring. How I miss her.
The last time I heard a cuckoo was in the mountains of Spain. I heard a hospital doctor once say that the first sign of Spring for him was, 'Sputum becomes clearer'.
If I hear a cuckoo on a video or something it always reminds me of our visits to England, along with the smell of Boxwood.
Here in the Eastern United States, the first sign of Spring for me is the call of
a Red Wing Blackbird. Never heard a cuckoo.
My road has a large marsh on its leading edge, the habitat of redwing blackbirds. When they are back, it's spring. The offspring are yellow winged blackbirds the first year, and we all notice when the chicks hatch and are all over the rushes.
The signs of Spring for me in the Northeast USA include: flocks of robins pecking in the lawn seeking worms as well my beds of crocus and daffodils in flower. Every Fall I plant 50-100 new bulbs. These are not formal flower beds. I simply dig a shallow 6-7 ft. diameter hole, place the bulbs in the hole and cover them with soil. After a cold Winter, Spring time produces a lovely mass of colorful bulbs. All circles are strategically placed to draw people through the garden or in to the woodlands.
Here in West Virginia it is the arrival of robins. Although I have to say they can be untrustworthy predictors. Then the blooming if tiny wildflowers like checkered and ground ivy.
Talking about in your blog about signs of spring. When I was growing up we always waited to hear the peepers around the ponds. They were small frogs and you could here them croaking especially in the evening. In southeastern Ohio we always looked for the first robins also. I am eagerly awaiting the first robin. I am not a winter person. Spring is coming soon.
Those little frogs piping up called, around here, spring peepers and ephemerals popping up in the shady back corner.
Victoria in southern Indiana
As Karen from Indiana USA said, an exciting sign of the coming Spring is the arrival of the Sandhill Cranes at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in Decatur , Alabama, USA. They are amazing to see in mass!
The catkins on the tree outside my window, - when they start to get plump, and grow longer, my spring heart starts to swell!!!
Hearing that first Cuckoo is still an important pointer for me. I always make a point of telling people.
We have only been 2 Springs in Piraeus, and the seasons don't change as dramatically as in the higher latitudes we came from. Here we look out for what we (just our household) calls housemartin day - the air fills with thousands of them (and swifts) swirling above our bay and spreading out to find their roosts.
Where I live, close to town center, I can not expect to hear a cuckoo, but of course we hear them during our walks and hikes in the Black Forest on weekends in spring and early summer.
The arrival of spring to me is linked to a certain quality of the air, not even a distinct smell or scent, but a softness that it does not have in winter. The light also plays a big role, and of course early morning birdsong. By the time the cherry tree in front of my kitchen window is in bloom, spring is already heading fast towards early summer.
We have our Snowdrops out at the moment, but for me it is the Daffodils opening their tight flower heads fully and the Bluebells appearing in our wood that signal Spring. I've not heard a cuckoo yet ... but I have had lots of very strange co-incidences happening recently.
Plenty of snowdrops here in Cornwall and daffs in full bloom but getting battered by the heavy rain today. I was walking in Sandwich Kent with my son 7 years ago and I said 'Do you know that I can't remember the last time I hear a cuckoo' and not a minute later we heard 'Cuckoo! Cuckoo!' Magical and quite the biggest coincidence of the decade for me! I'd forgotten all about sticky buds. What lovely reading this blog post/comments has been on such a long, wet indoors day. Rose Bodmin Cornwall.
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