Cuckoo!

I heard a cuckoo calling in the distance a few days ago here and have read that Colin the confiding cuckoo has returned to Thursley Common in Surrey. Up to a hundred photographers a day are descending on the place to capture him eating mealworms on planted perches.

I photographed this cuckoo flower, a member of the cabbage family, on the bank of the lake this afternoon. It is so-called because its first flowering every year coincides with the arrival of the cuckoos. It's a food plant for orange-tip and green-veined-white butterflies.

I was hoping for a good day of macro shooting but even though it was pleasantly sunny, not that many butterflies and and bugs were around. I managed a mediocre shot of a wasp-like Nomada (possibly ruficornis) cuckoo bee. (Extras). These bees lay their eggs in the nests of other bees, hence the name.