unearthings - the cuckoo, the barley bird & the sweet suffolk owl

It was a Sunday in mid-May. We were in Suffolk, listening to a cuckoo in a wood near a nuclear power station, and the time seemed to stand still. On our way home, we stopped by a patch of heathland, and were serenaded for more than an hour by a pair of nightingales, who were drowning out the sound of the military aircraft that were rumbling overhead. It was a clear evening. There was a sundog before the dusk decended, and a tawny owl called into the night. Readings:- The Cuckoo - anon The Cuckoo - a poem by Frederick Locker-Lampson (1857) An account of the barley bird, by the Rev. Robert Forby (The Vocabulary of East Anglia, 1830) Sweet Suffolk Owl - anon, possibly by Thomas Vautor, fl.1600-1620)