Hi Hugh,
Cuckoos have been closer to you than you thought. One laid its egg in a blackbirds nest, in a garden hedge only a couple of feet from the footpath on Shrewley Common.
The only time I,ve heard a cuckoo this year, was when the M40 was at a standstill about 10 days ago. It was the other side of the motorway, in the Rowington direction

--- In warwickbirds@yahoogroups.com, Hugh Darwen <hughdarwen@...> wrote:
>
> I'm pleased to report that the cuckoos came to Shrewley again this year
> (really, between Shrewley and Rowington in the vicinity of a local landmark
> named High Chimneys).
>
> My first hearing was quite early: April 10th (Good Friday). A week or so
> after that I saw a calling bird chasing another one very closely--I don't
> know enough to guess whether this was male courting a female or a male
> chasing a competitor. On June 3rd I heard a female three times but I'm a
> long way off last year's 8 times on different days.
>
> On two occasions I've had a brief glimpse of a flying bird that was (a)
> surely a cuckoo and (b) apparently brown in colour. If I'm right this would
> be my first ever brown morph cuckoo. (Yes, there are kestrels around in the
> same area.)
>
> How are cuckoos doing elsewhere in the county?
>
> Hugh
>