Updates from our Cuckoos

With decent weather conditions forecast, we’d anticipated the return of our final three tagged Cuckoos this weekend and so it turned out to be the case! By Sunday afternoon Cleeve was back at Cranwich Heath, where he was tagged in May last year.

Following a similar route to fellow Cuckoo Joe, Cleeve headed from the Bordeaux region up past Angers, making a sea crossing from Caen. Heading straight inland, he flew over central London, and continued on, passing the BTO headquarters in Thetford before arriving at his summer residence on the edge of Thetford Forest.      

Cleeve was the bird who gained a little fame after being featured on the BBC’s One Show, when presenter Hannah Stitfall joined BTO staff as they went out to catch and tag Cuckoos in the Brecks. It’s great to have him back, along with our other tagged birds!

Since we last checked in with Joe, when he was in south-west France, he has covered his final 1,000 km (620 miles) back to Norfolk. His route took him north though western France, crossing The Channel close to Bayeux, and arriving on UK shores at Worthing.

By midnight on Saturday, he was on the edge of Thetford Forest, and shortly after was just east of Downham Market, just a few miles from where he was tagged in 2022. He is just one day earlier than he was arriving back in 2024!  

Hafren was still in the Finistère department of Brittany on Friday afternoon, but by Sunday morning he was back in the UK. Heading north, he flew straight across The Channel, passing just 20 km (12 miles) west of Guernsey, before flying over the Dorset coast near Abbotsbury.

He continued, passing over Sherborne, Bath and Gloucester before arriving back in the area around Hill Court Farm and The Blacklands, where he was tagged on 18 May last year.

Hot on the heels of Cores and Wilfrid, Sayaan is the third of our tagged Cuckoos to return to his breeding area this spring.

Having made his way through the Italian Alps from Genoa, via Turin, in recent days, he then took off through France in a north-westerly direction, passing Paris and heading directly for The Channel. Around 7.30 this morning (25) he flew over Worthing and continued inland and is currently just south-west of Horsham, West Sussex.

He is in the same region where he was tagged in 2023 and where he also spent last summer.

In the last three days Hafren has left his temporary home in the Cáceres province, Spain, and covered around 1,600 km (994 miles). His journey took him around the Bay of Biscay, passing over Bilbao, then Bordeaux, before heading to Nantes, and finally taking a rest just north of Lorient, in southern Brittany.

His next big flight should take him to the UK and to his Worcestershire summer residence!

Cleeve seemed quite settled in the Soria region of north-central Spain over the last few days, preparing for the next leg of his journey north. However, he has now crossed over the French border and is now just 25 km (15 miles) to the west of Bordeaux, close to the Médoc Regional Nature Park.

With good weather conditions forecast, can we expect to see Cleeve back in Suffolk over the weekend?  

Joe has now left Spain, and is the only one of our tagged Cuckoos to cross over the Pyrenees, though he took it relatively easy by keeping to the west and avoiding the higher mountains! Passing Pamplona and entering south-west France, he is currently in lush farmland in the Nouvelle-Aquitane region.

Tagged in East Anglia back in 2022, he arrived back on his regular breeding grounds on April 29 last year, and on April 24 in 2023. Will we see him back on Norfolk soil this weekend?

After a few days resting and feeding in northern Spain, Cuach Cores has powered on and headed straight for Ireland. Crossing the Bay of Biscay, he took a direct route of around 1,200 km (745 miles), skirting the Isles of Scilly, and arriving in County Cork this morning (22).

He is currently just 70 km (43 miles) to the east of Killarney National Park, where he spent last summer, and also where  he was first tagged in 2023. He has arrived back in Ireland 18 days earlier than he did last year.

Once again, Wilfrid went quiet for a short while, leaving us guessing as to his whereabouts following his arrival in central Spain in early April. Our last signal placed him near Guadalupe, then over the weekend we received notification of his arrival in Suffolk – our first tagged bird to return!

He is back in the same area near Worlingham Marshes, within the Broads National Park, where he was tagged in early June last year, further highlighting just how site-faithful these birds are!  

Since our last update just two days ago, Sayaan has flown more than 2,000 km (1,242 miles) from central Algeria, to southern Italy. He is the only one of our current crop of tagged Cuckoos to take an easterly route.

He is currently in an area dominated by lush woodland, in the hills just 35 km (21 miles) west of Genoa.