He's back!

We went for a walk around Thursley late morning and ended up passing Colin's field.  We hadn't heard any cuckoo calling but there were a couple of photographers there so we went over for a chat. One was just leaving, having come from Poole to see Colin but after two hours of no show he needed to get away. The other guy, from Hastings, was going to stay for the rest of the afternoon and he had mealworms on him so we decided to hang around.

Then a precocious young lad came along with his camera and telephoto lens and joined the party. He'd been wanting to see the cuckoo for ages but never had. His grandmother, who is in poor health, was elsewhere on the common so he phoned her to let her know that he had found the field and there were other people there. I guess he thought we seemed okay as we all had cameras.

Anyway, we hung around chatting for about half an hour. The guy from Hastings mentioned that another guy had told him Colin had put in appearance at 1.15 pm the day before. This was at about 1pm and, bang on cue, at 1.15 pm Colin flew in, calling, and landed on one of the oak trees around the edge of the field. We knew what would happen next so we all jumped into action, switching our cameras on and putting mealworms in strategic positions.

Then, as is his usual routine, Colin swooped down to the smaller tree in the field, called a bit, and then flew down on to the perch. He stayed with us, eating mealworms and posing for us for 45 minutes, during which time another photographer came along and joined us. We all went away afterwards buzzing, having had an amazing wildlife encounter.

It's good to have you back, Colin :)