For the first time in three years----

Annaram1, you are my spiritual twin, all the things you mention drive me mad with rage and frustration but I have no idea where to begin to put things right. My son invited me to go on holiday with them to Malta, he couldn't understand why I refused because I didn't want to spend money anywhere that killing migrating birds is accepted. My swifts came back on Sunday, I was so relieved

I live very near woods and when I moved to my house in 1984 I heard cuckoos very year. Have not heard one for twenty years or so now. Very sad.

I hear them every year here in rural Essex, but I heard one today for the first time this year as well.

Marc, unfortunately the U S is not renowned as the world's. Number one place for interest in anything to do with nature..
HannahLois, you should notify this to your council and also the RSPB. I'm pretty sure it is a crime.
Also you may never get house martins this year, and maybe not in the future, due to 140 million swallows and martins Bering caught in mist nets all along the Mediterranean and North Africa to be cooked and eaten. See my list.
Grandtantje, how wonderful to hear a nightingale. It is 40 years since I heard one, and it was the only time.
Anniefrance, you are in France aren't you? I would love to
see a hoopoe.
BradfordLass, Your cuckoo is just beautiful. Thank you for letting us all see and hear it.

Cuckoos are not garden birds but should be heard in woods and open countryside.
For the last few years I’ve heard a cuckoo just a couple of times. This year none at all.
I’ve seen a huge decline in the wildlife in my garden over recent years. Few birds and insects except the commonest kinds, only an occasional hedgehog or toad or slow worm.
What wicked wanton destruction of our beautiful world! I’m ashamed to be human.

How lovely. I have never heard a cuckoo!
I heard an owl for the first time in a Eurocamp in a forest in the Loire three years ago and stayed awake the next night to hear it again.

Cuckoo heard on the shores of Loch Broom (Ross and Cromarty) last week.

I don't think I've ever heard a cuckoo. I have a woodpecker that visits my garden frequently but no cuckoos.

We love the song of a chaffinch we have in our garden . It reminds us of holidays in Austria .

I think the cuckoos are late this year. I haven't heard one yet, but on Easter Sunday just after dark there was a nightingale singing its little heart out in our garden.

The first time I have heard one in the three years we have lived here.

I haven’theard one as yet, but the blackbirds are singing so loudly just lately that they probably drown out everything else.

Summer is a coming in,
Loud sings the cuckoo,
Soweth sed, and groweth med
And out springs the wood anew

(Old English)

I also haven't heard a cuckoo for years chicken, what a treat. Annaraml a member of the Woodland Trust told me it's cheaper to build on woodland than to 'clean' brownfield sites, which is one reason so many woodland areas are being bulldozed in my area. Also our council is selling off small pockets of land to developers. Such a sad state of affairs that there is no requirement to consider wildlife: it might help if wildlife preservation was a compulsory part of building plans.

It's heartbreaking isn't it, what our birds have to go through just to survive.
Latest horror to add to your list Annaraml, developers netting trees and hedges to stop birds nesting which would delay building work.
I'm still waiting and hoping for the house martins which nest around here every year.
Haven't heard a cuckoo for years. ?

I knew this thread would start to go the way of everything is going downhill. Be positive!! I am in the US and we have issues but every morning the birds wake me up! It's not all doom and gloom.

The cuckoo and wood pecker arrive in our woods same time every April. I saw a cuckoo for the first time ever the other day.

The wagtails and redstarts also back. OH saw a hoopoe yesterday.

Do we know the reasons for the sad decline in numbers?
1: Farmers rooting out hedges and bushes where birds might nest, and spraying poison on their crops.
2: Gardeners using toxic slug pellets when there are safer alternatives available in all garden centres.
3: Gardens kept too tidy, so there are no weeds or wild flowers to attract insects.
4: Killing swallows and martins and willow warblers in their hundreds of thousands all across the Mediterranean and especially North Africa and Egypt, by means of fine mist nets, quicklime, and shooting. See report in Mail on Sunday last weekend, May 5, page 21, by Robin Page.
5: People putting out peanuts at nesting times, as baby birds cannot digest these.
6: Cats! Which kill 30 MILLION birds a year.
7: People destroying birds nests, such as martins, because they make a mess. This is illegal, but it is still done.
8: Taking birds eggs. Illegal.
9: Killing rare prey birds such as ospreys and eagles. Also illegal.
10: Killing crows and ravens and even pigeons. Illegal.
11: Cutting hedges at nesting time.
There are probably other reasons too, but I can't think of any more at the moment.
It is a wonder there are any birds left in Britain.

Lovely post :-)

I haven't heard a Cuckoo for years and reading this post has left me feeling happy and sad.

Happy that the cuckoo is still around to be heard and sad that where we live I'm not likely to hear one.

DGD heard a Woodpecker while camping in the Lakes and was so excited to tell me she'd heard one for really not just on a DVD, bless her.

Lucky you! I haven't heard the cuckoo for a long time. Sad decline in numbers both the cuckoo and for other birds

I think birdsong is a joy. We have less trees around our new house but I still love to hear birdsong. I love the sound of a wood pigeon. So calming

We definitely started talking "cuckoo" at least 2 weeks earlier last year. So it would seem that they are a bit later this year. I wonder if that bodes good or bad for the summer to come.

www.gransnet.com/forums/aibu/1247429-The-humble-cuckoo-In-April-come-he-will-In-may-he-sings-all-day?pg=1&order=

Until last year and now this year I had regular swallow visitors who would make their home and rear their families in my out buildings and where they would get a constant supply of insects from surrounding agricultural land. These lands are now being taken over by housing estates and dual carriage ways.

None heard yet this year; but a woodpecker is drilling away endlessly in the wood behind our home.

I haven’t heard one here in South Manchester but I did hear them some days in Malaga two weeks ago! Lovely sound.
❤️

I think birds are so uplifting. I've been thrilled recently by the reappearance of swallows and swifts and by the skylarks singing on the nearby common.

I haven't heard a cuckoo yet but I'm hoping.

Heard one yesterday in Argyll, a little later than previous years by about a week. We have heard them every year we've been here. Seen them too occasionally.