The Wansdyke & District Forums

First swallows over the paddock this morning, right on cue, the same week as every year. I keep a little book of the firsts, first swallow, first cuckoo, first snowdrop, going back to when we first moved here. It is the dullest diary in England and I treasure it. The cuckoo is late this year though, or I have not heard him, and I do listen for him. Has anyone heard the cuckoo yet up their end?

Lovely, Anne, and that little book is worth far more than you think. That run of dates is real data; the naturalists call it phenology, and amateurs like you keeping it faithfully for decades is exactly how we know the springs are creeping earlier. As for the cuckoo, I am sorry to say I hear fewer every year. They are in trouble, the cuckoos, like a lot of the summer birds. Some years the silence where the cuckoo should be is the loudest thing on the down. Keep your book. It matters more with each year it runs.

Now that is a sad thought to go with my swallows, Geoff, but a true one, and I would rather know than not. I shall keep the book. Someone ought to be counting, even if it is only an old woman and a notebook. Especially then, perhaps.