White-beam on Scout Scar Hearing a distant cuckoo I was alert and listening, following the sound. I scanned the taller trees, the dead trees it often displays from. And heard it closer. I walked in the cover of the wall, attentive. Then I glimpsed a bird in flight and fixed my binoculars on it, unmistakeably the cuckoo. Fast and purposeful flight, long rounded tail and pointed wings. Strong light showed the greys of its plumage. Maybe I've photographed this bird before, certainly I know its lineage. Welcome home cuckoo.
Welcome to your spring and summer residence. After all, this cuckoo lineage has a long history in this location. Some half a century, I hear. Probably far longer. I watch the bird disappear into the distance. I'll be back for more, certainly. ' easy to see in the breeding season. It perches in the open' says my Collins Bird Guide. The cuckoo is massively in decline. Over the next two days I wandered Scout Scar and Helsington Barrows, in locations where I've found cuckoo before. Not a call, not a sighting. Locals who walk Scout Scar report hearing a cuckoo but no one else has seen it yet. The male displays and calls from a visible perch to attract a female but the call is famously hard to locate. The cuckoo fly-past was rapid and took me by surprise although I was intent on seeing the bird. So no photograph. But it lingers in my mind's eye, a sharp and unforgettable image.
The morning was beautiful, the cloudscape made for photography.
The morning was beautiful, the cloudscape made for photography.
Toward some new writing, I walked to Helsington Church to confirm the precise location of photographs I took some two years ago. I wanted to pinpoint Dobdale Hill, what must be one of the least hills anywhere. It's no more than a clump of trees on a five metre contour in the mosses of the Lyth Valley. I looked through binoculars to make out Helsington Pool, the watercourse running close by. On the map all drainage channels show in a network of blue but they're hard to see from the escarpment. Grassy embankments hide the water and their green merges into pasture. I made out a little egret, a dazzle of white in the distance.
There are changes to agriculture, always. When I wrote About Scout Scar Barrowfield Farm still grazed some sheep up on the escarpment. No longer. And they have different breeds of dairy cattle: Belgian Blue and some chestnut and white cows with calves close to the farm. Gone are the Holstein Friesians.
Park End Moss is newly restored wetland. Seen from the escarpment, the full extent of it is revealed.
There are changes to agriculture, always. When I wrote About Scout Scar Barrowfield Farm still grazed some sheep up on the escarpment. No longer. And they have different breeds of dairy cattle: Belgian Blue and some chestnut and white cows with calves close to the farm. Gone are the Holstein Friesians.
Park End Moss is newly restored wetland. Seen from the escarpment, the full extent of it is revealed.
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