Cuckoos hopefully coming soon.
09th April 2024
Soon Cuckoos will be arriving back in the Brecon Beacons, it’s usually mid-month before we hear their distinctive call from the surrounding hillsides. Personally I can’t wait, because then I know it’s time for me to check my favoured sites for these enigmatic yet characterful birds, these adjectives describe Cuckoos from a photographers point of view at least.
One day last week I was indoors cataloguing photographs - unable to venture out during this horrible spell of weather we are enduring. When I came to the Cuckoo master file I paused to look at some photographs from way back, and it jogged my memory.
It was 2012 and a beautiful late spring evening on a local mountainside. Susan and I had been watching four perhaps five Cuckoos flying around and perching on the sparsely populated Hawthorn trees. These were the halcyon days when Cuckoos could be seen in some numbers at this site.
I had tried to approach them for a photograph but they were having none of it, sometimes that’s the way it is. We had resigned ourselves to getting a few record shots and just enjoying the spectacle. The sun was getting lower and the light was becoming mellower as a result, the Cuckoos were still quite active chasing each other from tree to tree – unsurprising given their territorial nature.
As I have outlined many times previously, when male Cuckoos are chasing each other during a territorial spat they can and do perch in the most unexpected positions, sometimes relatively close to people. I have experienced this many times and can therefore say categorically that more than one Cuckoo in the same area greatly increases a photographer’s chance of success.
This scenario I’m pleased to say was repeated and Susan and I were treated to quite a spectacle with birds flying all around us calling as they flew - a special few minutes.
Surprisingly a man came along casually riding a mountain bike and he stopped and asked what we were looking at. He explained that he was on a management course locally and he was just out for a ride. I pointed out a Cuckoo in a tree because he said he had never seen one before. ‘So that’s a Cuckoo’ he said, with a degree of doubt in his voice, as two birds flew over us calling loudly – ‘Yes they are’ I said conclusively. He thanked us and rode off down the track.
The sun had lowered further and was now shining directly on some hawthorn trees behind us, illuminating them beautifully in a very nice early evening light. Cuckoos were still flying around and unbelievably one of the more inquisitive males landed right in one of these Hawthorns. I shot him immediately, however, he was still a bit further away than I would have liked. This is something that had always irked me with the resulting images from this particular day. I had forgotten about them until this week, but seeing them again brought my frustrations back.
However, there is now something I can do about it, and it’s called AI (Topaz). I am now able to crop in without the resultant noise problems.
My photographic memories of that evening are now far more pleasing.
One day last week I was indoors cataloguing photographs - unable to venture out during this horrible spell of weather we are enduring. When I came to the Cuckoo master file I paused to look at some photographs from way back, and it jogged my memory.
It was 2012 and a beautiful late spring evening on a local mountainside. Susan and I had been watching four perhaps five Cuckoos flying around and perching on the sparsely populated Hawthorn trees. These were the halcyon days when Cuckoos could be seen in some numbers at this site.
I had tried to approach them for a photograph but they were having none of it, sometimes that’s the way it is. We had resigned ourselves to getting a few record shots and just enjoying the spectacle. The sun was getting lower and the light was becoming mellower as a result, the Cuckoos were still quite active chasing each other from tree to tree – unsurprising given their territorial nature.
As I have outlined many times previously, when male Cuckoos are chasing each other during a territorial spat they can and do perch in the most unexpected positions, sometimes relatively close to people. I have experienced this many times and can therefore say categorically that more than one Cuckoo in the same area greatly increases a photographer’s chance of success.
This scenario I’m pleased to say was repeated and Susan and I were treated to quite a spectacle with birds flying all around us calling as they flew - a special few minutes.
Surprisingly a man came along casually riding a mountain bike and he stopped and asked what we were looking at. He explained that he was on a management course locally and he was just out for a ride. I pointed out a Cuckoo in a tree because he said he had never seen one before. ‘So that’s a Cuckoo’ he said, with a degree of doubt in his voice, as two birds flew over us calling loudly – ‘Yes they are’ I said conclusively. He thanked us and rode off down the track.
The sun had lowered further and was now shining directly on some hawthorn trees behind us, illuminating them beautifully in a very nice early evening light. Cuckoos were still flying around and unbelievably one of the more inquisitive males landed right in one of these Hawthorns. I shot him immediately, however, he was still a bit further away than I would have liked. This is something that had always irked me with the resulting images from this particular day. I had forgotten about them until this week, but seeing them again brought my frustrations back.
However, there is now something I can do about it, and it’s called AI (Topaz). I am now able to crop in without the resultant noise problems.
My photographic memories of that evening are now far more pleasing.