Narrated by John Gooders

Today is the first day of spring and soon large numbers of bird migrants from Africa will be flying in for the breeding season. Among them will be the cuckoos that lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.

This is the story of the cuckoos at Petersfinger Lakes near Salisbury. In over 1,000 hours of patient observation, Terence and Ted Channell have not only filmed the secrets of the cuckoos' lives - and their unwitting reed warbler fosterparents - but also a great variety of other wildlife which spends the summer there.

All the events in the film are typical of those that will take place from now on in countless places that, like Petersfinger, are no more than a dot on the map.

BBC Bristol