As the Olympics wound down into the second week of August I had my attention on a statistic and record of another kind. I was keen to improve on my first sighting of a cuckoo at the end of winter. Although welcome swallows might be the official bird of spring – and I take note of the dates of their arrival, too – the fan-tailed cuckoo is always the first of the migrants to arrive in my neighbourhood. As soon as I hear the cuckoo’s persistent trilling coming from the forest … [Read more...] about Forget the Olympics, cuckoo has record of its own