First Cuckoo of the year

As the forecast had been for heavy rain, my plan was for going and getting some food shopping. But I had also promised that I would take two of the people I have been aiding recently to a place where we could all get a good look at the Red Kites. The difficulty is that it wouldn't work if the weather was very wet, but equally getting everyone together at the same time was nigh on impossible.

So yesterday it was all left open and dependent upon the weather. Therefore, when I saw that the rain had not yet arrived I called my fellow watchers and said I was willing to give it a try. So we all headed off to a place that I knew there was a good chance of seeing them, but as there are no guarantees I wanted to increase the odds and took some pieces of cooked chicken. Just as putting out seeds and nuts for birds in the garden attracts visitors then I knew there was more opportunity by doing this.

We settled down and waited, while nothing happened with the Red Kites for a time, while we waited we saw other birds. Two exceptional ones was a Kestrel and a green woodpecker. It was nearing the time that I would have to head home, as would one of my fellow watchers. It really did seem as though we had lucked out, but just as we were saying we would give it another half hour, we had been there for over six hours, we spotted one in the distance. After about fifteen minutes it was joined by two more and they came to the field were we were. From the hedge we watch as they flew fifteen or twenty feet overhead. It did not take them long to find the chicken, they did not ever land to take it but plucked the chicken pieces from the ground in swift passes.
We were all more than thrilled by this and while we were all now running late it was worth it.

Anyway, with my fix of Red Kite, I headed off to get some shopping. I got that done s quickly that I had time to treat myself to a carrot cake and a coffee. The bus home goes through a rather run down council estate (Housing Project) that is set in a rather nice landscape. If it were not for the crime problems I would love to live there myself as the views are heart warming. While on the bus just by a large green on the edge of the estate and on a steep hill, I spotted what I at first thought was a thrush. It was newly fledged as its feathers were still fluffy. But it didn't look right for a thrush, I thought it looked like a cuckoo and this was confirmed when this warbler, probably a willow warbler, provided the comical vision as it fed this over grown fledgling. The bus was passed before I could see more, but having not herd a cuckoo this year at all, it was great to see that.