Cuckoo Cuckoo

After a busy day, i went a walk through Sandringham with Mum, it was a lovely balmy evening. And to make it perfect we heard our first cuckoo of the year!















The cuckoo is a dove-sized bird with blue grey upper parts, head and chest with dark barred white under parts. With their sleek body, long tail and pointed wings they are not unlike kestrels or sparrowhawks. Sexes are similar and the young are brown. They are summer visitors and well-known brood parasites, the females laying their eggs in the nests of other birds, especially meadow pipits, dunnocks and reed warblers. Their recent population decline makes this a Red List species.

Where to see them

Cuckoos can be seen throughout the UK, but are especially numerous in southern and central England.

When to see them

Adults arrive in late March or April and depart in July or August, with young birds leaving a month or so later.

What they eat

Insects, especially hairy caterpillars.

Time Out

Tonight at Time Out we went on a walk round Sandringham, i thought i had to drive but it turned out we had enough cars so i went with Monica.
We arrived at Sandringham and a group of us decided on doing the Blue trail which said approx 1 mile.
On the way, it got quite black and started to rain, and we got a little worried, but it turned into a lovely evening and a lovely walk.
We say Grey Squirrels, as well as a Grey Squirrel nest (drey......)

We saw a young Jay, sitting on a log in a puddle


And at the end at the top of a fir tree we saw and heard a Songthrush.

This 1 mile walk ended up as being 6131 steps and 2.80 miles long.
During the walk we saw a helicopter hovering and circling, we wondered if it was the Queen coming home, then on the way home we saw 3 police cars and a police van stopped, and an ambulance speeding along with flashing lights, i wonder what was going on!
We also saw a fantastic round bright orange sun setting, the sky was just amazing colours.

27th June 2010