I made my biennial trip to photograph the cuckoos near Allerthorp in Yorkshire, which means a very early start to the day – so early that I didn’t actually go to bed the night before. As always, I got two hours in a portable hide to witness and photograph these migrating birds that are becoming rarer by the year in the UK. It’s been a long time since I even heard a Cuckoo close to home.
It was a misty start to the day with little sun to burn off the haze but this gave me a set of photos that are different to previous visits and that’s always good. Of course the lack of light meant high ISOs to capture the action and then some post processing in Topaz DeNoise which seems to have performed well. Both a female (L) and male (R) were in attendance.

I am always in hope that something interesting will happen when I’m photographing nature in the wild and this was a lucky day as the birds mated right in front of the camera. The male was really pushing his luck with his courtship display (dropping his wings and raising his tail whilst constantly ‘cuckooing’) and persistently displayed to the female over a twenty minute period where they coupled once – unfortunately from a photography perspective with their backs to camera.

Once the brief action was over the male continued to pursue the female but she was having none of it and avoided his attentions for the duration of my stay.
There was a Rufous Morph Cuckoo in the area the day before but sadly she did not show during my time at the hide but there were a few showings of both male (L) and female (R) Reed Buntings.