Cuckoo...

I had a very lovely walk this morning above the reservoir and on the fringe of the moors. My soundtrack was at least 3 male cuckoos, curlew, noisy oystercatchers, lapwing, snipe and meadow pipits. The cuckoos were quite close I thought, but as per usual, only heard and not seen. 

A couple of weeks ago I learned that the call of a female cuckoo is quite different to that of the male. The male does the 'cuckoo' and the female doesn't. She does a sort of yaffle/harsh burble. Anyway, I walked past a tree and that's what I heard. I couldn't place the call for a moment but then she called again. Female cuckoo I thought! 

What was interesting was that she only called twice - as far as I know - and a male literally flew in cuckooing. What followed was noisy mating in the tree right next to me...but could I see them? Nope.

When they had finished their business, the male flew out of the tree cuckooing in glee and sat on a distant wall for a bit. That's when this photo was taken. Very nice too :)