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4 cuckoos

02 Jul 19 - 12:59 PM (#3998880)
Subject: 4 cuckoos
From: The Sandman

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


03 Jul 19 - 12:33 AM (#3998970)
Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: leeneia

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.


03 Jul 19 - 05:11 PM (#3999057)
Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: JHW

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.


03 Jul 19 - 11:42 PM (#3999115)
Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: leeneia

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.


04 Jul 19 - 12:53 PM (#3999179)
Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: leeneia

Now, about the song.

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


04 Jul 19 - 01:06 PM (#3999181)
Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: The Sandman

birds egs


04 Jul 19 - 03:54 PM (#3999230)
Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: leeneia

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


05 Jul 19 - 09:18 PM (#3999482)
Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: Joe_F

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.


06 Jul 19 - 12:48 AM (#3999489)
Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: leeneia

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.


06 Jul 19 - 12:53 AM (#3999490)
Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: leeneia

Do the traffic signals sound like this:

yellow-billed cuckoo

Our cuckoo is slightly more musical than I thought.


07 Jul 19 - 03:07 PM (#3999732)
Subject: RE: 4 cuckoos
From: Joe_F

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