SPRING IS IN THE AIR.

I noticed this morning that the buds on the Horse Chestnut tree outside my bedroom window have begun to open, a definite sign that Spring is here. Soon the leaves will open and hide the activities of the Rooks which live in the upper branches. Some are dismantling last year's nests and starting anew while others are just patching up their old nests. A disturbing development this year is the number of fights that have occurred as intruders try to take over one of the existing nests. The birds grapple together as they fall, fluttering, down through the branches until they hit the ground, where they end up with one bird pinned down on its back while the other tries to peck it to death. This is a common behavior in Blackbirds which will reject all human attempts to separate them, and usually results in the death of one bird. Rooks however must have some sort of ‘submit’ signal which leads to the upper rook returning to the nest and the other flying off.

My Cuckoo, Selborne, is behaving rather oddly. The latest satelite information from its tag reads:-

“Selborne doubles back - 11 Mar 2019

Selborne has left Guinea and headed back east and into Ivory Coast. He seems to be homing in on the rains that are currently prevalent in the southern half of Ivory Coast. This wasn’t a short journey, he is 376km (234 miles) from his location in Guinea. This shows the importance of homing in on the rains and that our Cuckoos have the ability to do this.”

In previous years he has set off on his 3,000 mile journey back home around the 24^th of March, so plenty of time yet to stock up for the flight.