The Curious Life of the
John Lewis-Stempel is a writer and farmer. His books include the Sunday Times bestsellers The Running Hare and The Wood. He is the only person to have won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing twice, with Meadowland and Where Poppies Blow. In 2016 he was Magazine Columnist of the Year for his column in Country Life. He farms cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry. Traditionally.
The Curious Life of the Cuckoo
John Lewis-Stempel
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First published in Great Britain in 2025 by Doubleday an imprint of Transworld Publishers
Copyright © John Lewis-Stempel 2025
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Tempus adest veris, cuculus, modo rumpe soporem.
Ascribed to Bede (672–735)
Contents
‘To the Cuckoo’ ix
Introduction 1
The Real Life of the Cuckoo 11
The Cuckoos of Europe 45
Cuckoo Music 53
The Cuckoo in Myth and Folklore: Messenger of Spring and Morality 61
The Flight of the Cuckoo: The Resistible Decline of Cuculus canorus 79
Where to Hear (and See) Cuckoos in the UK 87
Useful Addresses 89
Bibliography 91
Picture Credits 95
‘The Cuckoo’ 96
To the Cuckoo
O blithe New-comer! I have heard, I hear thee and rejoice.
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird, Or but a wandering Voice?
While I am lying on the grass Thy twofold shout I hear; From hill to hill it seems to pass, At once far off, and near.
Though babbling only to the Vale Of sunshine and of flowers, Thou bringest unto me a tale Of visionary hours.
Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring! Even yet thou art to me No bird, but an invisible thing, A voice, a mystery;
The same whom in my school-boy days I listened to; that Cry Which made me look a thousand ways In bush, and tree, and sky.
To seek thee did I often rove Through woods and on the green; And thou wert still a hope, a love; Still longed for, never seen.
And I can listen to thee yet; Can lie upon the plain And listen, till I do beget That golden time again.
O blessèd Bird! the earth we pace Again appears to be An unsubstantial, faery place; That is fit home for Thee!
William Wordsworth (1770–1850)