Swings and Roundabouts.

I have been out looking for Ring Ouzels since early April and I have all but drawn a blank. This spring looks like a real bad one for Ouzels around here! I have paid six visits to an upland area called Craig Cerrig Gleisiad, which is supposed to be a breeding habitat for these birds and I have only seen one male bird. That viewing was on April 7th, a horrible cold and misty morning and he showed distantly for ten seconds and then flew off and was not seen by me again.



It's frustrating because there are plenty of Ouzels being reported on the UK coasts but they don't appear to have made their way up onto the Beacons. I will have to accept this as my only viewing this spring which is very disappointing but that's birding and it's time to move on.
There are reports of Cuckoos in the local areas and that is early for the Beacons. With this in mind Susan and I went out for a drive this morning and while we were parked up on a mountain road having a cup of coffee we could hear a male bird calling and as we scanned the nearby hawthorn trees we could see him sat out. I managed to take a record shot of him from the car before he flew off.



I will be back for another look next week perhaps a female will have joined him by then.
You lose some you win some!!