A couple of unseasonalities.

The first of these occurred - or better, began - on Friday 1 August when I noticed a pile of twigs in the location of the Tawny Frogmouth nest in our big Yellow Box.  It has been added to each night so I have concluded that it is a nest building exercise by the local pair.  Here is the situation as at 4 August.
Following my original notice to the COG Chatline another observer visited her local patch of Frogmouth fecundity and reported that she could see no sign of activity in the usual sites.  (One possible explanation for the earliness might be that at least one of my pair has changed: this would also explain the rather unusual level of roost fidelity.  The birds roosted in the same position every day from 28 April to 4 July whereas their pattern in past years has been to shift roost about every 5 days.)

Also on 4 August, while taking the small dog for her morning walk I clearly heard the call of a Pallid Cuckoo coming from a little to the North of our block. This seemed a little early so I consulted the excellent array of data on the species available through the COG website.   The crucial information is the reporting rate x Month:
This suggests that it is an early record but probably not outrageously so!

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