Cuckoo to you

Posted on by Brian Scott

The sky was a perfect blue when we woke this morning, not a cloud to be seen so, it must be Backwater reservoir day! Up, made breakfast, showered, dressed (always worth remembering) camera – check, battery – charged, card in place and off I went.

It’s only seven miles away on a twisty country road and there was next to no traffic either; definite traffic up here 🙂 AND the car park was empty when I arrived. Bonus!

I sorted myself out, started BirdTrack, started my walk app and set off up the track.

It was a glorious morning, a bit cooler up here but still really warm. I’d forgotten one thing in all my checks……….

Binoculars! Ach well, I’ll walk more, ID less and only go for shots worth getting and use the long lens for any ID needed.

Loads of birds around, obviously 🙂 but I walked the first mile pretty quickly, only stopping a couple of times, there wasn’t really that much to see yet so I set a good pace up to the picnic bench and through the first gate before slowing down to watch for …. whatever really.

I’d just been thinking that I was hearing plenty of birds but I hadn’t heard a Cuckoo in ages 😦

I had Merlin switched on from time to time, especially if I could hear lots of calls, just to see what was around. I was actually about half way back when I spotted a bird on a bush just off the road.

A Whitethroat. As I focussed, I heard a Cuckoo, quite loud, fairly nearby and moving.

I grabbed a few shots of the Whitethroat and kept listening for the Cuckoo. I’ve been hoping to photograph one of these for a few years now and never had a decent opportunity yet. I lowered the camera and looked up. The Cuckoo, still calling was gliding by me slowly!!!! Panic. I switched focus modes and turned as it disappeared over the tree line!

Seriously? Unbelievable! It was there for the taking and I missed it.

Honest. That’s a Cuckoo 😦

I was gutted, laughing but gutted 🙂

On I walked, heading back to the car park anyway, same direction as it went so, you never know right?

That was it. I heard it nearby a few times as I reached the end of the walk but, never saw it again! Damn it!

C’est la vie. Whit’s fer ye’ll no go by ye! Only it just had 🙂

8 thoughts on “Cuckoo to you”

  1. Sounds like a lovely day, apart from missing the ever elusive Cuckoo. Such a shame. At least you got to see it albeit from a distance. 🤭 Better remember the Binoculars next time 😂 although by time you finish zooming in on it, you’d have no time to take a photo so maybe you weren’t meant to take them after all, so at least you got a quick snap shot of it as it “laughingly” drifted off and disappeared out over the horizon. 🥺🤣

    Hope you don’t mind, but being a Poet I couldn’t help myself…. A little ditty to hopefully ease your disappointment 🙏

    “Whit’s fer ye’ll no go by ye”
    If it’s meant to be, it’ll stay with thee
    If it passes you by, in the blink of an eye
    All one can say is C’est La Vie. 😊🤭

    One day eh? 🙏 🤭

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    1. Oh I see! Having a giggle at my expense! Just enjoy why don’t you? 😉

      it was a great walk and I saw AND photographed lots of other things anyway.

      Thank you for the poem 👍 x

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      1. 😂 Poem? You’re welcome. No offence meant Brian. I wasn’t being facetious or laughing AT you, your situation caused a giggle 🤭 My vivid imagination at play 😂

        Glad you had a great walk and got lots of photographs. 👍 x

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  2. Hello!!! None taken at all, it’s very hard to offend me, I promise you 🙂 I have a similar imagination so never worry x Just creating the next patch walk instalment

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    1. Thank goodness we have same over active imaginations 😂 It was just “seeing” you fumbling about, panicking to get a shot of the Cuckoo as it teased you, so close yet so far, and flew off. It’s like it was saying “peep po”, after all their song sounds like that to me. Lol 😂🤣🤭😆 x

      Remember binoculars on next walk although sometimes looking through them can waste valuable time. You might get a really good “birds eye view” of the Cuckoo peering down the lens, that probably means he’s sitting on the binoculars lol 😂😆🤣😅 x

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  4. Ah, cuckoos. The only photo I’ve ever managed to take of one was in Scotland and it was through the car windscreen, and camera didn’t focus that well!

    How do you find Merlin? I experiment with it occasionally and think it’s very useful about 95% of the time, with the occasional howler thrown in for good measure. On a recent walk, it told me that a bleating lamb was a common snipe. (!)

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    1. Good morning Adele, I do actually have a couple of very distant shots of one in this same area but not worth shouting about. I agree on Merlin, mostly good, it seems to struggle with our Thrush songs but threw in a Bittern the other day, in a tree lined river gorge? 🤔🤣

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