Call of the Cuckoo - Richard Jefferies Reimagined #8
Have you heard a Cuckoo this year ...
[…]“‘There's the cuckoo!’ Everyone looked up and listened as the notes came indoors from the copse by the garden. He had returned to the same spot for the fourth time. The tallest birch-tree—it is as tall as an elm—stands close to the hedge, about three parts of the way up it, and it is just round there that the cuckoo generally sings. From the garden gate it is only a hundred yards to this tree, walking beside the hedge which extends all the way, so that the very first time the cuckoo calls upon his arrival he is certain to be heard. His voice travels that little distance with ease, and can be heard in every room.”[…]
The Hills and the Vale (1909)
sunshine filling every room the cuckoo’s call
Artist Credit
The featured image of a Cuckoo is from an original watercolour (1976) by Basil Ede. A short biography can be found here ...
Artists Inspired by Nature – Basil Ede
Audio Credit
The recording by Stanislas Wroza is used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. This and many more can be found at - Xeno-Canto a website dedicated to sharing bird sounds from all over the world.
Note
The one-line haiku was first published in Presence Issue 68
We don’t get the cuckoo here so how lovely to be reminded of the sound. And of course what it signified: summer is coming.
And for me, it reminds me of all that as well as the parodies of the letters to the Times about the first cuckoo that appeared on the Wipers Times about the first cuckoos on the Western Front in WW1.
Thanks Josie, I always used to listen out for them every Spring and scan the newspapers for their first reported occurrence – quite a newsworthy event then.
I didn’t know about the parodies – I’ll have to read up about that!
When I read that you had the sound of a cuckoo, I had something else in mind. I’ve been living with a cuckoo now for 46 years! 🤭🤭
Thanks for commenting although I’m unsure of your meaning. I’d better keep my crazy guesses to myself!
There was a cuckoo heard regularly near us last year for the first time in ages! Unfortunately, I didn’t hear it! I hope for better luck this year.
They do still turn up in some parts of the Country. So here’s hoping for you Clare.
I wish we could expect the arrival of the cuckoo each year but sadly not. I’ve not heard one since arriving in Cornwall 5 years ago and only once in our previous abode. I remember when to hear the cuckoo was an annual event.
Like you Sandra I haven’t heard one in oh so many years!
I haven’t heard a cuckoo in years! Great verse!
Nor me Ashley rather sad isn’t it. The haiku just seemed to flow.
🙏 🙏
Oh, the haiku! I love it!
Thanks Cathy I’m quite proud of that one!
I don’t recall ever hearing a cuckoo but it must be an evocative sound.
Thanks Andrea. That first long-waited call of a Cuckoo was for us the first sign of Summer. We also used to look out for the arrival of Swift and Spotted Flycatcher in mid-May. The last of the Summer Migrants to arrive. Sadly now they are all gone where we live in North Wales. Although with help their populations are stable if not actually thriving in other parts of the UK.
[…] This summer hokku was composed by Clive Bennett. […]
Enjoyed every part of this fascinating post, Clive! Thanks, for the transplant…getting to be quite a Garden!
Growing all the time. Thanks for the transplant. You have quite a community of gardeners now 😊
My son heard a cuckoo in the New Forest a few weeks ago. So there are a few left! I’ve heard no other reports of them this year. So sad that this lovely haunting call is now little more than a past memory for most of us.
That’s great to hear Richard, thanks. There are a few about scattered over the UK but nothing like the numbers there used to be. Sad I agree. We have a lot to answer for!
I haven’t heard the call of the cuckoo since 11 May 2019 (I noted the date because I was so excited to hear it). I’m worried about their numbers.
I live in the City of London so that may have something to do with my not hearing them often…
Wow Lesley that was exciting. They are not commonly heard or seen in London I agree, but this year they were heard in early April in Richmond and Forest Gate. Most likely passing through. So they are still about. I haven’t heard one here in North Wales for about 10 years. Thanks for ‘Following’ and all the ‘likes’.