Cuckoo

While working in the garden I saw several more swifts flying around, definitely a welcome sight.

The sound that filled my ears was that of the cuckoo. This is a bird whose call became its name and while it is a welcome sign of spring, with many people trying to be the first tot hear the cuckoo, the some is rather monotonous. 
I assume that the female flies around and the male just sits and sings, cuckoo, cuckoo, until a female hears.

European cuckoos do not build nests, instead they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. When the baby cuckoo hatches it shovels the eggs and chicks onto its back and heaves them over the edge of the nest, leaving it the sole chick and the poor adult birds, who are often very much smaller than it a momentous task of feeding their adopted offspring.



 I did not take this pic.