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Ocknell Plain, New Forest, 2nd April 2024 19:30
Capturing the first cuckoo of the year
I thought I'd heard it faintly, way off in the distance, and then, a moment later, I saw it, far away, tracing that low, arching flight path typical of a cuckoo as it moved across the undulating landscape of heath and scrub from one prominent shrub to another. Unsure, I lifted my camera with its 400mm lens to my eye and snapped a quick photo, ignoring image quality for the expediency of the record. I had what I wanted and needed and, with a quick zoom to 400% on the camera's screen, the slender, pointed wings and barred belly were unmistakable, it was undoubtedly the first cuckoo of the year. He belted out a clear "cuckoo", took to the air and bounced away over the valley, out of sight and earshot. At the time, I thought that was that.
So, why am I presenting this shaky, blurred, savagely cropped, over-contrasty image; a dog of a photo with clipped highlights that should have been consigned to the digital bin? Well, it's not the image that matters this time, it's the record. Look at the date; it was a year ago on the 2nd of April. I've long kept a record of the first cuckoo I hear each spring, and this sighting was ten days earlier than my previous earliest record. So, down it went in my notes, alongside the first frogspawn, the first bluebells and the first nightjar.
As cuckoos migrate north out of Africa and this is the very south of England, our cuckoo sightings are always among the first in the country. A little excited with my sighting, I later checked with others in the area and confirmed it had indeed been a very early cuckoo. The punchline? What I didn't realise, they told me, is that you're supposed to write to The Times newspaper when you hear the first cuckoo, but it was too late and someone had beaten me to it, albeit with a later sighting, and my fleeting chance of fifteen minutes of fame flew away, just as swiftly as this cuckoo. I'll probably not have another chance either, certainly not this year, as the 2nd of April has passed and I haven't heard a cuckoo yet.
Photo details - Olympus OMD-EM5ii, Leica DG 100-400, 800mm(equiv.) f6.3 1/100sec ISO 640. Processed in Lightroom for MacOS (cropping and basic light settings)
So, why am I presenting this shaky, blurred, savagely cropped, over-contrasty image; a dog of a photo with clipped highlights that should have been consigned to the digital bin? Well, it's not the image that matters this time, it's the record. Look at the date; it was a year ago on the 2nd of April. I've long kept a record of the first cuckoo I hear each spring, and this sighting was ten days earlier than my previous earliest record. So, down it went in my notes, alongside the first frogspawn, the first bluebells and the first nightjar.
As cuckoos migrate north out of Africa and this is the very south of England, our cuckoo sightings are always among the first in the country. A little excited with my sighting, I later checked with others in the area and confirmed it had indeed been a very early cuckoo. The punchline? What I didn't realise, they told me, is that you're supposed to write to The Times newspaper when you hear the first cuckoo, but it was too late and someone had beaten me to it, albeit with a later sighting, and my fleeting chance of fifteen minutes of fame flew away, just as swiftly as this cuckoo. I'll probably not have another chance either, certainly not this year, as the 2nd of April has passed and I haven't heard a cuckoo yet.
Photo details - Olympus OMD-EM5ii, Leica DG 100-400, 800mm(equiv.) f6.3 1/100sec ISO 640. Processed in Lightroom for MacOS (cropping and basic light settings)