4 cuckoos

Subject: 4 cuckoos
From: The Sandman
Date: 02 Jul 19 - 12:59 PM

have just spotted 4 cuckoos in a friend's garden, reminded me of this song i used to sing, lovely clarinet playing sounds rather bird like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGoYfU2-A54

Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: leeneia
Date: 03 Jul 19 - 12:33 AM

Thanks for the link, Sandman. It's a delightful song, and I'm making a MIDI of it so there's a record of how it goes.

It's possible somebody has already done this, but as you probably know, searching for a song about a cuckoo would return many, many results.

Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: JHW
Date: 03 Jul 19 - 05:11 PM

Nice melody reminds me of Bellamy's 'Gulls by the Shore' a little but that may be just the line length deluding me.

I heard a 3 note cuckoo early this spring, nr Barningham. Co.Durham though south of the Tees. No one else about, just moor and sheep. Sometimes the regular Cuck-coo (two note interval?) but interspersed with the inclusion of a middle note, top and bottom staying the same. Cuck-cuck-coo three notes perfectly in a row.

Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: leeneia
Date: 03 Jul 19 - 11:42 PM

congratulations to both of you for encountering the cuckoos. Millions of people will live and die without ever hearing one.

Some years ago I was on a river cruise in Germany, and once or twice we heard a cuckoo on the bank. We never saw it, though; they are shy. I showed my fellow passengers its picture in my bird book, and they were quite interested, because few people know what a cuckoo actually looks like.

America has the American cuckoo, but they are just go "gluck." Nobody is ever going to market a gluck clock.

Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: leeneia
Date: 04 Jul 19 - 12:53 PM

Now, about the song.

Am I really hearing "He sucks little bugs in to make his voice clear?"

Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Jul 19 - 01:06 PM

birds egs

Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: leeneia
Date: 04 Jul 19 - 03:54 PM

Thank you, Sandman. I believe I'll folk process that.

Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: Joe_F
Date: 05 Jul 19 - 09:18 PM

One may hear clear American cuckoos in the Boston area, as auditory supplements to the pedestrian crossing signals. At some intersections, rather than being cuckooed across, one is buzzed, or rattled, or tweeted; I presume there is no difference in meaning.

Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: leeneia
Date: 06 Jul 19 - 12:48 AM

That's interesting. Maybe the difference in sound tells a blind person which signal the noise is coming from. e.g, the tweet is the N-S street and the cuckoo is the E-W street.

Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: leeneia
Date: 06 Jul 19 - 12:53 AM

Do the traffic signals sound like this:

yellow-billed cuckoo

Our cuckoo is slightly more musical than I thought.

Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: Joe_F
Date: 07 Jul 19 - 03:07 PM

Leeneia: I once asked a blind friend about that very possibility, but he had never heard about it.