Cuckoos are back in Herefordshire
12:42pm Thursday 17th April 2008
Our summer visitor from Africa was heard on Tuesday afternoon at The Weir Gardens, Swainshill, near Hereford. There, Bird Patrol recorders said they have also received visits from Swallows, house martins, chiff chaff and blackcaps
Last year the Hereford Times successfully launched its own dedicated website, called Bird Patrol, in an effort to monitor how many of the rarer breeds of migrant birds were finding their way back to Herefordshire – and where they were choosing to nest. Cuckoos, although in fewer numbers, swallows, chiff chaff and even nightingales were recorded in the county in 2007. The response from readers was tremendous, with a daily stream of messages on our website.
We have launched Bird Patrol for a second year and ask you, the reader, to help us build up a picture of their spread throughout the county and border areas.
So, when you hear, or see, one of our migrants – cuckoo, swallow, house martin, chiff chaff, black cap or, if you are very lucky, a nightingale – add your comments here. Don’t worry if the interesting sighting is not of a rare migrant, still let us know. “Birds such as cuckoo and house martin are becoming increasingly rare in the county, and it’s valuable information if register your observations on the Bird Patrol website,” says Louise Pedersen, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.