[West Ender]

I live in a semi rural place and I haven't heard a cuckoo for about 10 years. We get a big variety of birds here, I get woodpeckers and hawks in my garden and I often see the local pair of buzzards circling. I once saw a buzzard swoop down and get a wild rabbit in its talons - never seen that before or since - but not a note of a cuckoo.

I don't know why the cuckoos have deserted Cheshire but they seem to have. I only ever saw one once, when I was a teenager in West End, chasing a dragon fly. It flew very close and I was amazed how big it was but very distinctive with its stripey chest.