Dates of the First Cuckoo in Spring 1916-2000

By Harry Green

Table 1.
1916 20 April
1917 1 May
1918 8 April
1919 18 April
1920 25 March
1921 20 April
1922 18 April
1923 18 April
1924 14 April
1925 10 April
1926 10 April
1927 20 April
1928 24 April
1929 16 April
1930 12 April
1931 26 April
1932 14 April
1933 16 April
1934 17 April
1935 14 April
1936 22 April
1937 24 April
1938 26 April
1939 13 April
1940 20 April
1941 22 April
1942 22 April
1943 22 April
1944 6 April
1945 12 April
1946 4 April
1947 13 April
1948 14 April
1949 11 April
1950 16 April
1951 14 April
1952 22 April
1953 20 April
1954 22 April
1955 15 April
1956 18 April
1957 19 April
1958 22 April
1959 18 April
1960 15 April
1961 20 April
1962 11 April
1963 22 April
1964 18 April
1965 30 April
1966 26 April
1967 23 April
1968 16 April
1969 18 April
1970 14 April
1971 18 April
1972 2 May
1973 24 April
1974 24 April
1975 26 April
1976 16 April
1977 25 April
1978 2 May
1979 4 May
1980 25 April
1981 4 May
1982 25 April
1983 25 April
1984 20 April
1985 22 April
1986 30 April
1987 25 April
1988 18 April
1989 20 April
1990 30 April
1991 2 May
1992 27 April
1993 25 April
1994 24 April
1995 27 April
1996 28 April
1997 30 April
1998 27 April
1999 25 April
2000 22 April
2001 30 April
Dates of first Cuckoo heard each year at Holly Dene, Moorgate Road, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, B60 4AW (grid ref SO 955658) by the Honeybourne family (father and daughters Dorothy and Margaret) are shown in table 1. Records started on Margaret's day of birth 20th April 1916 when her father started to note the dates on the wall of the outdoor privvy! These were later transcribed to paper and the recording is still continuing - on paper!. The dates in the table to the left were copied from the paper record by Harry Green 5th July 2001. Very many thanks to Dorothy and Margaret Honeybourne for for allowing us to report this remarkable series of records.

Dorothy and Margaret also commented that Cuckoos were much less commonly recorded in recent years and they thought arrival dates were getting later. Once they had a dunnock's nest occupied by a cuckoo nestling in their garden hedge. Note the only March date is in 1920.

Andrew Fraser collected much information about the distribution of cuckoo records in Worcestershire in 2001. We await the analysis with interest. He comments that it's the first year he has not heard a cuckoo.

Table 2. Records according to date of month. Conclusion is that cuckoos generally return in April, and that some dates are very unpopular! I suspect these latter anomalies arise from the daily activities of the recorders rather than the cuckoos' real dislike for certain arrival dates!

Date Number of years Year of record
     
25 March # 20
26 March    
27 March    
28 March    
29 March    
30 March    
31 March    
1 April    
2 April    
3 April    
4 April # 46
5 April    
6 April #  
7April   44
8 April # 18
9 April    
10 April ## 10, 26
11 April ## 49, 62
12 April ## 30, 45
13 April ## 39, 47
14 April ###### 24, 32, 35, 48, 51, 70
15 April ## 55, 60
16 April ###### 29, 33, 43, 50, 68, 76
17 April # 34
18 April ######### 19,22,23, 56, 59, 64, 69, 71, 88
19 April # 57
20 April ######## 16.21,27,40, 53, 61, 84, 89
21 April    
22 April ######### 36, 41, 42, 52, 54, 58, 63, 85, 00
23 April ## 67, 82
24 April ##### 28, 37, 73, 74, 94
25 April ###### 77, 80, 83, 87, 93, 99
26 April #### 31, 38, 66, 75
27 April ### 92, 95, 98
28 April # 96
29 April    
30 April ##### 65, 86, 90, 97, 01
1 May ## 17, 81
2 May ### 72, 78, 91
3 May    
4 May # 79
5 May

Table 1: Dates of first Cuckoo heard each year at Holly Dene, Moorgate Road, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, B60 4AW (grid ref SO 955658) by the Honeybourne family

 

 

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