BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird

Subject: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: Goose Gander
Date: 28 May 09 - 12:24 PM

But she's endangered according to this article.

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 May 09 - 01:42 PM

I was surprised to see starlings and house sparrows on that list. We've plenty of them over here!

There are some good tips on THIS SITE of how to help save the birds.

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 28 May 09 - 01:49 PM

Isn't fewer cuckoos good news for other small birds?

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: MartinRyan
Date: 28 May 09 - 01:53 PM

Here in Kinvara, in the west of Ireland, we hold an annual "Cuckoo Fleadh" festival over the May bank holiday (first weekend in May). The eponymous bird continues to arrive a week or two ahead of schedule, just down the road from me. Mind you, we always provide a suitably-attired human to adorn the streets of the town for the festival, just in case!

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 May 09 - 04:58 PM

Let's send some of the starlings and finches back, shall we? A few billion of each? (I heard that on NPR this morning).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 May 09 - 05:03 PM

Starlings and grackles, yes...but NOT the finches!!!!

We have lots of sparrows too...both kinds...

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: Will Fly
Date: 28 May 09 - 05:05 PM

My cuckoos come back each year to the fields near my house - two weeks earlier (mid-May) this year. It's comforting to hear it each year and has been so for the last 30 years.

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: Jane Bird
Date: 28 May 09 - 05:24 PM

This is the first spring for a few years that I haven't heard a cuckoo at some point. But I have seen one for the first time. It was in a friend's garden in the Cotswolds and it didn't stay long.

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: jeddy
Date: 28 May 09 - 05:46 PM

i don't think i have ever heard one, we do however have two woodpeckers in our local park and have never seen them either or the owls!!!
you are lucky to be able to see them

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: Janie
Date: 28 May 09 - 07:44 PM

Could a UK person tell us briefly about the Red list? What agency or organization compiles it?

Although Yellow-billed Cuckoos are supposedly common in my area (northeast Piedmont of North Carolina, USA,) I have never seen or heard one.

The Black-billed Cuckoo is supposed to be common where I was raised, in West Virginia. In spite of spending a huge amount of time in the woods, I never saw or heard one there either. The only Cuckoo I have ever seen or heard is the Mangrove Cuckoo, which we would occasionally see or hear back in the years I wintered in the Florida Keys.

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: astro
Date: 28 May 09 - 09:41 PM

The Red List is compiled by the IUCN - International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

~ Becky in Rigby, Idaho, on astro's computer

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 29 May 09 - 04:35 AM

Blinde Vinken (Blind Finches) - yum, yum, yum.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

substituting the word cuckoo just doesn't sound appetizing.

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: Joybell
Date: 30 May 09 - 03:09 AM

I love to donate a hundred or so sparrows. We've got both kinds here in Aus. displacing the native birds. Starlings too and quite a few thrushes.
But it's an alarming trend isn't it? World wide.
Joy

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 30 May 09 - 05:43 AM

The Cuckoo is a pretty bird,
She sits in the grass.
With her wings by her side and
Her head ...... under them.
And in this position,
She can only say 'twit'!
For who could say cuckoo,
With a beak full of... feathers!

Sorry to hear the cuckoo is disappearing.... It's distinctive call once heralded the start of Spring.... now we don't even hear it!!!

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 30 May 09 - 06:33 AM

The cuckoo ios a pretty bird,
she flits from bough to bough
she lays her eggs in a rhubarb tree
and whistles like a cow.

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: The Sandman
Date: 30 May 09 - 01:30 PM

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: GUEST, topsie - PM
Date: 28 May 09 - 01:49 PM

Isn't fewer cuckoos good news for other small birds?
NO, because it means their host species are disappearing too[ e g meadow pipits]

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 May 09 - 06:08 PM

In the US cowbirds do the same thing as the cuckoo, laying eggs in other bird's nests. But it isn't a part of speech. However, if the need arises, we could send some cowbirds, they're often mixed in with the starlings.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird
From: Joybell
Date: 31 May 09 - 01:44 AM

Our cuckoos don't say "cuckoo". We do have owls that sound a lot like old-world cuckoos, though. Boo-book owls. I like to talk to them. They answer anything that sounds like their two-tone, two-note call.
Cheers Joy