Hope for the Lappinch

We heard a cuckoo on the farm! Those of you who recall our post of 15 February, may recall that we had pretty much given up hope of hearing a cuckoo again in our part of Cheshire and would instead focus our efforts on lapwing. Well, it seems that one cuckoo had not read the script as, yesterday afternoon, there was one quite clearly calling away from the trees just across our fields. I had previously thought of cuckoos calling in England somewhat earlier in May but, late or not, it was a welcome sound indeed. Cuckoos don’t stay for long and, having mated and laid their egg in some unfortunate victim’s nest, they are off back to the jungles of Africa, usually departing towards the end of June, never meeting their offspring. A strange life but one that the English countryside in Spring is much poorer without. It certainly made our day.