[cloddopper]

The last Cuckoo call of the year

We heard ours in the area of our big oaks for the last time on the evening of the 27 August.  ( now I can have a lay in till spring )

Anyone still hearing them in their localities

[Fleecewife]

We don't hear them at any time - there don't seem to be any cuckoos hereabouts, in our part of the south of Scotland.  How lucky you are to have them in your area.

[shygirl]

i dont think iv ever heard a cuckoo. plenty of seagulls...mind 
i do like the call of the buzzard though, they circle our farm. 

[Harebell]

I haven't heard a cockoo since May or early June...most adult cockoos left the UK some time ago.  Perhaps the one you heard was a fledged youngest on their way south?

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) have been satellite tracking cuckoos caught in the UK for the past few years.  You can follow their migration on this website.  As you can see, the tracked birds started leaving the UK in late June and early July.  Most are in west and central Africa right now!

http://www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking

[oor wullie]

We had a juvenile hanging about the garden for most of the last week in July/first in August.  I think the adults migrate earlier and the juveniles make their own way a few weeks later.

This young bird was the most pathetic bird I have ever seen.  It spent its days sitting on a fence post making a feeble squeaking noise and keeping its mouth open demanding to be fed.  Every so often it would fly to the other side of the garden as if to try and make its 'parents' life a bit more difficult.
The 'parent' birds were meadow pipits who, being tiny beside a cuckoo, had to perch on the cuckoos shoulder in order to get food into its mouth.  Quite a comical sight.