May is still with us but I'm already starting to crystallize opinion about what species are doing well this year. From my visit to the Blaenserchan valley recently its clear that this year will go down as one for the common blue, but a bird that seems more widespread than recent times is the cuckoo. Despite successive claims putting it on the edge of extinction in Britain with TV programmes and even book predicting its demise its characteristic call seems more ubiquitous than ever his Spring. For the first time I even recorded singing cuckoo from the comfort of my back garden in downtown valley bottom!
This evenings walk on the lower slopes of Mynydd Varteg Fawr produced at least two cuckoo, the odd reed bunting and a pair of vocal stonechat - dispelling my previous assertion that numbers were significantly lower this season. Look out for stands of hares tail and common cotton grass that are at their best at the moment as well.
You are lucky with the cuckoo. In our area it has been largely absent. This year I heard it just once.
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