This morning I got up to go to the bathroom at 6:15. While so
engaged, I heard a sound from outdoors which electrified me-the soft,
repetitive cu-cu-cu of a Black-billed Cuckoo. Instead of going back
to bed, I got up, went outside and heard it a few more times. I went
back into the house to do something, then heard it again. I went
outside again, went onto a side street near my street of Rugby Ave in
C. ville, and got quite close, but could not see the bird. Just then
a neighbor woman came out from her house to walk her dog. I told her
about what I was listening to, but I'm not too convinced she thought
I was a totally sane person, especially when I used the word cuckoo.
And just then it started to rain. According to folklore, farmers
called the cuckoos rainbirds, because they frequently sang just
before a rain. The last solid record of a Black-billed Cuckoo in
Albemarle County was one of May 1, 2007 at Observatory Hill. Before
that, in the 70s, they were heard with some frequency at Bucks Elbow.
Stauffer Miller