Way out West (incorporating Way up North)

On hearing the first cuckoo in spring.

Two days of continuous, if somewhat apologetic, sunshine and a defunct car have compelled me to spend the day at home. Not a great trial I hasten to add, although a few more degrees would make it more pleasant to be outdoors. I was extremely pleased to see the first of the swallows returning, not just because the lengthening days and fitful sun has been wakening up all the hibernating insects. Each morning now has it's little ritual of gently escorting a dozen or so cluster flies out of the windows, they're very dozy and buzz lethargically off into the heather scrub where hopefully they'll be hoovered up by the many feathery buckets that lurk around my boundaries.
Cluster flies are odd, although they look very similar to the classic blowfly, beloved of criminal pathologists and fishermen, they aren't really more than annoying, they don't seem to investigate food, and are extremely phototropic, so they mostly just buzz against the windows. Their habit of overwintering in large numbers in attics etc is what gives them their name.
Having finally got it together enough to get outside and plant some things, and at the same time shore up the bunny defences (although I hope I am only planting things they don't like), I took a short break to wander down to the burn and inspect the feral rhubarb which is growing among a jumble of rocks next to what in summer is my bathing pool. All is well, although the brief moment last month when we were the hottest place in the UK, and the subsequent weeks of rain, snow, hail and sleet seems to have given it a bit of a shock and it was offering up an enormous flower bud before the leaves had scarcely unfurled. While I was removing this unwelcome evidence of strain, I was enchanted to hear a cuckoo calling in the pine forest on the other side of the burn. This very morning I had been reading a book which describes what birds I might expect to find in this area, and I had idly noticed, that among the black grouse, capercaillie and golden eagles that I might reasonably expect to encounter, was also the cuckoo. I'll be outside looking for the eagles if anybody wants me...

posted by Lampy @ 4/30/2012 08:39:00 am