First Cuckoo and First Dragonfly of the Year

Having thought I would not be hearing a Cuckoo this year I heard either the same bird or two different birds in two locations this morning. Either way I heard the first Cuckoo of the year for me 😃

I opened the bedroom window at about 6 o'clock this morning and heard a Cuckoo singing from over towards the cliff tops. There are no mature trees over there just hedgerows so maybe it had just arrived? We listened to it for a while and I went to get my binoculars and camera, on my return the bird had flown inland and was now singing from the golf club area.

I got ready asap and went over there but I couldn't relocate it. I had to go and do a bit of shopping then and when I came out of Tesco's I heard a Cuckoo singing very close by from the trees along the Trans Pennine Trail. As I tried to find it, it flew over the car park and went west. My friend Jon heard a Cuckoo from the north side of the Mere shortly afterwards so maybe that was the same bird. I delivered the shopping then set off and walked through Freeport down to the Mere but didn't hear any Cuckoos singing.

Along the south side there was the usual dearth of birds on the Mere, apart from a couple of Common Terns over by Swan Island. However it was a lovely WARM morning for a change and I took my coat off to let the sun see my bare arms for the first time this year - it was a morning for firsts 😂

A couple of singing Blackcaps, Sedge Warblers, Cetti's Warblers and a Chiff Chaff accompanied my wander through first and second fields and I started walking along the path to Heslop's. Half way down I saw a dragonfly over the fence going past me so I turned round and followed it, hoping it would stay somewhere near the fence line. It did, and what I first thought was a female Broad Bodied Chaser turned out to be a female Four-spotted Chaser. My first dragonfly of the year.

Four-spotted Chaser in Heslop's

Overhead I heard a crow making a racket so looked up to see what had disturbed it and saw a Common Buzzard and a Marsh Harrier being mobbed by the crow. The Marsh Harrier and Buzzard were having a bit of a fratch and the crow just seemed to be joining in.

Marsh Harrier and Common Buzzard agreeing to disagree

 Quiz

Agree to disagree. But disagree to part - which song does this line come from?

The answer will appear in my next post.

 

Back home I had yet another another first of the year - a Brimstone butterfly in the garden 👍😎 usually I would have seen Brimstone far earlier than this but at least I've seen one now. The weather this Spring has been weird and probably very damaging for loads of breeding creatures. Hopefully the upward change in the temperature will allow things to get back to normallity.

Five of the seven common frogs basking in our pond today