Updates from our Cuckoos

The last few weeks have been quiet and for those who had not yet completed their desert crossings, it looks like the challenging conditions have claimed more of our tagged Cuckoos.

Unfortunately no further signals have been received from Knepp. From the temperature data and movements at the time, he was alive on 12 July, when we last heard from his tag. Though the battery charge had been low for a few days, there is no evidence of long term battery decline so we can't be sure what has happened to him - either he, or the tag, appear to have died suddenly. 

Lambert, who was still in France, has not moved on south and signals on 21 August showed high temperature fluctuations across the day, indicating the bird's body temperature and behaviour were not regulating it. We've heard nothing since then, and his tags battery charge had suddenly dipped, all of which leads us to believe he has likely died.

Unfortunately the challenging conditions have also impacted on Nussey who has already attempted two trips to Africa and retreated to Europe.  Abnormally low temperatures were received at the time of the last messages (16 August), having previously been fine. He was not migrating at that time, so the low temperatures were not due to high altitude, and the battery was also much lower than previously, further suggesting he was dead.

The droughts and exceptionally high temperatures in Europe appear to have proved difficult for our Cuckoos this year, however the five south of the Sahara are still regularly transmitting. Valentine, PJ, Carlton II and Tennysons' tags have all sent signals during September and the last signals received from Senan's tag were at the end of August and show him still in Burkina Faso.

We are still receiving signals from Lambert's tag showing that he is 48 km (30 miles) north west of Montpelier. Hopefully we'll see him on the move in the next few days to reassure us that all is well with Lambert. 

An update from Lambert's tag late in the afternoon of July 13 showed that he had flown 420 km (262 miles) south east and was close to Notre-Dame-de-la-Rouviere in southern France. He has since settled a couple of miles east of that location, near the small village of Valniere in the Cevennes National Park. He is 53 Km (33 miles) north of Montpelier and is in the same location that he stopped in last year. Last year he left this location on July 25 so we don't expect him to hang around for long. 

Knepp Cuckoo Lambert has pushed a little further South and is now 11 Km (7 miles) south of the town of Blois. He is currently on a similar path to his southward migration last year. If he continues to follow this path we can expect him to make his next stop in the south of France. 

Lambert has successfully crossed the English Channel. He appears to have crossed almost due south of his Sussex breeding area and flown over 125km (77 miles) of open water. He is currently 117km (72 miles) south of the Normandy coast and in farmland to the west of Verneuil-sur-Avre. 

During the evening of 17 June we received a series of locations from Lambert's tag that showed he was over the English Channel, 16km (10 miles) offshore of Brighton. We will have to wait until the evening of 19 June to see how far he has travelled. Fingers crossed he will have made landfall in France.

Lambert has been back in the UK for almost a month and during this time he has been moving around the Knepp Estate area. He has ranged as far north as Southwater and as far south as Ashington. In the last week he has spent quite a bit of time in the area between Whitehall and Dial Post.

An update received from Lambert's tag at 04:50 this morning showed that Lambert had succesfully covered the remaining 498 Km (309 miles) from his last location near Mazieres-en-Gatine in west central France to his breeding grounds in Sussex. Lambert is one of three Cuckoos tagged on the Knepp Estate.

Updates received from Lambert's tag late yesterday afternoon show that he has flown 400 Km (249 miles) north from his last location in southern Spain to the La Rioja province of northern Spain, near the González-Lacasa Reservoir. 

An update received from Lambert's tag this morning shows that he has crossed from northern Algeria into southern Spain. He is currently on the northern edge of the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park, the largest protected area in Spain. Lambert has another 1,380 Km (857 miles) to go before he can join fellow Cuckoo Knepp back on the Knepp Estate in Sussex where he was tagged.