That was me who posted about the lack of cuckoos in Minnesota. Darn, Raptor, they must be rare. I've never seen or heard one, and I don't recall anyone ever mentioning them, either. They certainly wouldn't be thought of as a harbinger of spring here. The arrival of the first robins and the sound of their evening call, the bloom of the first dandelion, the swat of the first mosquito, the removal of the first woodtick -- these are all significant events, which people take note of every year. (And they seem far in the future now.)