Cuckoo goes AWOL

Usually the cuckoo arrives early in the part of the country where I live, and leaves early too. 

I suspect he heads off to somewhere like Connemara or the Burren where cuckoos are far commoner than they are in Leinster. Normally I hear the first calls before the end of April and they stop two or three weeks later. But this year I had to wait until the end of May to hear the first bird, and he’s already left.

I was actually beginning to worry about this. I’ve lived in this part of the world for nearly 40 years and over that timespan cuckoo numbers have declined. But every year I’d heard at least one, though often in the distance.