Cuckoo in the garden

One of the “problems” with being aware of nature is that I often sleep lightly.  I was first woken at about 2 am by distant cuckoo (gjøk) song and then a short burst of song in the garden, the first time I’ve recorded this species in song here and I made the video below (I was bleary eyed which is probably why it’s not in focus!). I hear song from mid-May to early June most years but mostly in the distance and usually just for one day. I suspect that most of these are stopping over on the way north. Although I thought of cuckoos at one time as birds of the English countryside, my time in Scotland taught me that they were equally at home in the mountains and here in Norway they are widespread breeding birds throughout the country including the high mountains and the arctic tundra in the north. I’ve clipped in a sequence showing the sunrise in the north east at the same time.