Article #72476

That characteristic song was an unexpected delight alongside the chiffchaffs, blackcaps and whitethroats too

With hindsight, the late June heatwave was not the ideal time for my (very) old schoolmates and me to be cycling around Suffolk. Yet, despite the searing heat and the lateness of the season, the woods and hedgerows were still awash with birdsong.

Chirping chiffchaffs, melodic blackcaps and warbling whitethroats were everywhere, while swallows twittered over fields and swifts screamed past rooftops in the towns and villages we rode through. I even saw a cuckoo – which I momentarily mistook for a sparrowhawk – flying fast and low across the road.