num_pages: 246
description: Seen as a whole if they all arrived in a single flock it would be truly amazing: 16 million birds. Swallows martins swifts warblers wagtails wheatears cuckoos chats nightingales nightjars thrushes pipits and flycatchers pouring into Britain from sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of the enduring wonders of the natural world. Each bird faces the most daunting of journeysnavigating epic distances dependent on bodily fuel reserves. Yet none can refuse. Since pterodactyls flew twice-yearly odysseys have been the lot of migrant birds. For millennia the Great Arrival has been celebrated. From The Song of Solomon through Keats' Ode On a Nightingale to our thrill at hearing the first cuckoo call each year the spring-bringers are timeless heralds of shared seasonal joy. Yet as climate change escalates migrant birds are finding it increasingly hard to make the perilous journeys across the African desert. This is a moving call to arms by an impassioned expertget outside teach your children about these birds don't let them disappear from our shores and hearts.
language: English
title: Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo
publisher: John Murray