Cuckoos venture to pastures new

IT’S been a good year for cuckoos, for me, at least. In the last six weeks or so I’ve heard calling males in three different counties in three different provinces.

The first was in my own garden in Co Kildare, in Leinster. I didn’t note the date but it was towards the end of April and I was in my greenhouse potting plants when it started calling. It only stayed for two days and then moved on. I suspect that it was a fairly early arrival from Africa on passage to somewhere further west and it just stopped to rest and scout around.

In the third week of May I took a short break to fish the mayfly on Lough Conn in Co Mayo. There were cuckoos calling all around the lake from dawn until dusk. Then over the bank holiday weekend at the end of May and beginning of June, I stayed in Ballinskelligs in south Kerry and there was a distant male calling the whole time I was there.