Y Tywyddiadur

April 12, 1927 Fernhurst   Found Cuckoo Flowers in the wild garden and Marsh Marigolds in the ponds. These are very late, as I saw gypsies with large bunches for sale near Hindhead, over a month ago. Early flowering tulips are out, also Yellow Alyssum, Double Arabis, Polyanthus in all colours, Auriculas, Star of Bethlehem, and hosts of Daffodils and Narcissi.

May 1   Cuckoo sings (the first heard).

5

Found Cuckoo flowers, or “ Lady’s smock” in the garden – also Wart Cress.

15 April   Cuckoo reported calling.

17

Heard the cuckoo before 6 AM....... His tail goes up and his head down each time he cuckoos, a very wooden looking bird.

18

Found Cuckoo Pint -Hail fell at 7 PM. and the night was starlit.

25

[Details of chaffinch being fed with crumbs by hand. Also fat baby cuckoo being fed by a little bird - possibly a whitethroat.]

30

Sunny morning. Tremendous showers in the afternoon. Again saw the young Cuckoo being fed..... his foster mother was very busy hunting food for him among the cabbages, then on a birch tree. To feed him she ran up his back, and he turned his head over his shoulder, with his wide red mouth open to receive the food which she then popped in, and flew off for more. He kept up an incessant cry for food. It must be exhausting work for the foster mother, feeding such a large bird, And she is soon led him off to roost in the copse. About an hour later he was back again – sitting very dejected – and crying, but no foster mother came.

Labelled June 6th in diary but JULY 6 in sequence

6

Found Woody or Bittersweet nightshade in Fernhurst also Figwort [birds observed - goldfinch, great spotted woodpecker, young cuckoo, great tit]

April 20, 1929   The Cuckoo at Rhowniar seen and heard by Mr and Mrs Weston. I am told on very good authority, of a Bittern at Towyn Marshes.

The Cuckoo was not heard, but it was reported calling in the district on 22 April

Gwrych Castle Grounds Bird Ramble leader Mr Richard Jones 

April 21 a cuckoo reported calling – I heard it first time on the 24th.

July 4   Found a young Cuckoo (few days old) in a Hedge-sparrow’s nest in the Cotoneaster on the house wall, below our kitchen window, and bits of the foster parents’ blue eggs on the ground below. July 10th the Hedge-sparrow does not “cover” the young Cuckoo today as hitherto. July 11 Hedge-sparrow did not rest on or near the nest with Cuckoo. July 15 Watched Hedge-sparrow feeding the young Cuckoo with a few softened breadcrumbs and bits of boiled potatoes. They did not give it any of the cooked fat provided for them. July 16 Cuckoo is out of the nest, on the edge of it. On 17th it goes down on the ground, but returns to the nest at night; 18th it tries to escape out of the net I have thrown over the bush. July 17 /19 I fed Cuckoo with soft biscuits and boiled potato. On 19th it picked bits of the bar I used to feed it. Late evening 19th it is trying to get away. 21st it picks food off ground and drinks; dips its beak in the water 24 times during the period I was watching. July 22 Cuckoo escapes. Found it on the 23rd in adjoining garden. On being disturbed it flew about 30 yards into another tree. 24th Hedge-sparrows are very busy feeding the Cuckoo. 28 Cuckoo being fed still. 29 Cuckoo drinking freely, flies about the garden, but I have not seen it picking food for itself. 24th/28  Hedge-sparrows are carrying food off bird table for young Cuckoo. July 29 Cuckoo drinking freely, but not yet seen finding food for itself.

Cuckoo heard

Richard Jones Records of Bird Migration, 1932

April 26, 1937 heard and saw cuckoo. It was heard yesterday on the other side