Summer is a coming in........

O BLITHE New-comer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice.
O Cuckoo! Shall I call thee Bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?

It has been a very wet week- ironic that we are in drought- and that plus a nasty flu virus has largely kept me indoors. But Monday morning I did go to Paxton Pits in the hope of hearing the nightingale- and was not disappointed, but was actually delighted to hear my first cuckoo of the year. They call just speaks of summer coming and whilst its not nice to think of this bird cuckooing some poor  

warbler and throwing out its young- its just what a cuckoo does, and to think they have just flown so far and are so solitary. And the call echoed round the pit and filled me with joy.

It was good to see the cormornat community of nests and also a heron on the nest. Lots of warblers, wrens, robins and blackbirds and one greenwoodpecker flew across with its slightly ziz zag flight pattern. On the journey it was good too to see a sparrowhawk, buzzard and kestrel.

On Flitton Moor, gold marsh marigolds were luminous, nicely contrasted by the cuckoo flowers.

And damsels- none to be seen- I know they have been seen at a garden pond in Biggleswade but no more than that. But the weather looks better for monday so time permitting who knows? And this weekend we look forward to our silver wedding anniversary open house and our home is full of the gold of daffodils and tulips and the wonderful fragrance of cakes............