Being Watched

The upside of being a cuckoo is you don't have to deal with babies. That should make him -and her- a revered bird for some I hear talking these days: those who claim to want to live their own lives and not bother with that sort of thing. They do, though, often want to do the sort of thing that brings babies into the world as does this bird.

The downside is the rest of the population thoroughly dislikes this kind of irresponsible behaviour and makes life awkward for the cuckoo. It's rare to see a cuckoo on Blacka that's not being constantly watched and even harrassed by others, as was this one. We don't want any of your sort round here thank you. For some birds the irritation of hearing that two note tune must be almost, but not quite, as bad as walking into a shop before Christmas and hearing Jingle Bells yet again. Please play another tune.

Still, at its freshest in the woods in April with the woodland acoustic just right there's not much that can beat it. This one was moving towards us near the stream until almost above. He was one of two calling here today.
https://soundcloud.com/pastandpresent/30thapr14b