From the Santa Cruz Sentinel, 10/2/2012:

"The news of a rare bird sighting in the wetlands near Ramsay Park has set hearts aflutter in the birding community.

Lois Goldfrank, a veteran Santa Cruz County birder, spotted what's been tentatively identified as a common cuckoo on Friday morning at Watsonville Slough while on an outing with the Santa Cruz Bird Club.

The Common Cuckoo, a 13-inch bird also known as the Eurasian cuckoo, breeds in Europe and Asia, and winters in central and southern Africa. The bird rarely has been seen in North America and then mostly in Alaska's westernmost islands. The only other recorded sighting of the cuckoo in the lower 48 was in 1981 on Martha's Vineyard."