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Wild June and the sweet cheat gone

2 June 2020 by Simon Barnes 12 Comments

June 1 

It was the start of 30 Days Wild and Eddie and I were sitting on the common in the late afternoon. A sudden cry, tremendously loud and just behind us: cuckoo! 

And then he was flying over us, across us and away, wings shearing the air like an especially sharp pair of scissors. 

The bird has been a voice for nearly six weeks; every day we’ve heard him call. His success depends on how often and how loud he can say his name: summoning a female across the Norfolk miles. 

To set eyes on him was in its small way remarkable: like meeting a radio star, with a voice you know almost as well as your own – so much so that the possession of a physical appearance seems almost presumptuous.

Then from behind us again, another cry of cuckoo. Two birds then, both males, one telling the other to try his luck at some place less promising than these few acres of marshland. 

It’s all in the voice: the simple far-carrying syllables of the name. The bird’s existence and his future are all caught up in those two notes. A few years back, a particularly keen bird consistently threw in an extra syllable: cu-cuck-oo! Did that make him extra desirable, or a freak to be shunned?

And who was this interloper, this bird forced to flee above our heads? Perhaps he was raised by a luckless pair of reed warblers on the marshes below, perhaps sired by the obstreperous singer who forced him to fly elsewhere.

The sweet cheat gone… C.K. Scott Moncrieff’s idiosyncratic translation of Albertine Disparue. Not one for the purists, but singularly appropriate for the fleeing cuckoo.

He who remained called out his name once again. In the pause, we all listened hard for the joyous bubbling call of a female cuckoo. Alas, without luck. So call again. Call again, while spring still lasts.

Eddie’s Blog: Wild June 1

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Comments

  1. Bairbre Cahill says

    2 June 2020 at 12:42 pm

    So delighted to see you and Eddie back in action for Wild June!

    Reply
  2. Wes Pickering says

    2 June 2020 at 12:44 pm

    Welcome back Eddie and Simon – great to hear you two are back and I look forward to your thoughts – can’t leave Australia at present and no chance of a cuckoo here!!

    Reply
  3. Julian Prouse says

    2 June 2020 at 1:17 pm

    Welcome back. Really missed you.

    Reply
  4. Bernard Kirkham says

    2 June 2020 at 1:58 pm

    Great to hear your wondrous thoughts again. You brighten my day.

    Reply
  5. Mrs Andy Lloyd Williams says

    2 June 2020 at 1:58 pm

    What a great surprise to see you both back in action. Eddie – loved the white Foxglove with a bee photograph- well, loved all your photos. Thank you.

    Reply
  6. Rob says

    2 June 2020 at 2:07 pm

    Lovely to have you and Eddie back ! I can’t recommend your book highly enough, since it has been released lost count of how many I have given as gifts .

    Reply
  7. Sylvia Welling says

    2 June 2020 at 2:21 pm

    So pleased to see you and Eddie back, I was beginning to worry whether all was well. Glad to see it is! Thank you.

    Reply
  8. Sue Tracey says

    2 June 2020 at 4:53 pm

    Hello Simon and Eddie

    How fantastic to see you pop up in my in-box. I had thought….. wonder if those two fellows will be back for Wild June – you’ve made my day!
    xxx

    Reply
  9. Diane says

    2 June 2020 at 8:50 pm

    Beautiful photos of bees, thanks Eddie! Cuckoos chatting always fun to hear….

    Reply
  10. judydixey says

    3 June 2020 at 4:52 pm

    Love it, thanks, Simon

    Reply
  11. Michael Groves says

    4 June 2020 at 7:23 am

    I miss you Simon. Great to have you and Eddie back for Wild June though.

    And if anyone hasn’t already read Simon’s book Rewild Yourself then why not treat yourself to another wonderful book from Simon. Me and a friend Rob had read the book and he sorted us out a trip to Bempton Cliffs last year. It was of course to see the glorious puffins. And it was just amazing, a sheer joy and it was not just puffins either, gannets, kittiwakes razorbills and more. Aged in my 50’s I’d never seen a puffin, so we rewilded ourselves. Thank you Simon.

    Reply
  12. Alan P says

    5 June 2020 at 9:42 am

    Great to have these back Simon – will be reading ‘Rewilding Yourself’ shortly too..

    Reply

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