Cuckoo Calling - In At Elton

Elton Reservoir - 8.08.2023

There's a Cuckoo at Elton !.....interesting....but I've seen quite a few over the last couple of years in any case it's likely to be difficult to get close so I'll give it a miss....but it's a juvenile...really !.. I'm now getting interested as juveniles for me are few and far between seen only later in the year when adults have already left on migration back to Central Africa, as a bonus the juvenile is reported to be quite confiding coming really close...right I'll get my coat !

It's late afternoon around 5.0 pm when I arrive and boom the Cuckoo flys pass right in front of me. Making my way down to the horse paddock the location where the juvenile has been feeding on Cinnabar Moth caterpillars plentiful on the yellow Ragwort, I'm on the look out. Images I've seen have the bird perching on all sorts of vantage points, wood piles, walls, trees, even plastic chairs, but this evening the bird is now in an adjacent field.

Initially it's not a great shot, then it comes close it's way to close, further away it's on the ground amongst the clutter...doh ! but there's potential for a shot, a wooden post and a stone, it's just a case of waiting.

Eventually the cuckoo obliges landing on both and dialling down some negative exposure managing some shots in varying but nice light conditions.

Considering my initial thoughts it wasn’t worth a six mile trip it's been quite a success for such a short drive, below are some of the images. 

Common Cuckoo - juvenile