Updates from our Cuckoos

On the 20th May we received a report from a member of the public who had just found a bird's foot in Thetford Forest, Norfolk, that was carrying a metal ring. It was thought that the foot, being yellow, might belong to a small bird of prey. A search of the BTO ringing database showed that it belonged to Stanley. Whilst we will never know for sure what happened to him, we suspect that he fell victim to a predator of some sort.

Since arriving back Stanley has been frequenting his old haunts around the Cranwich Heath area. He has also visited Lakenheath Fen on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, something he did a few times in 2015. We expect him to stay in his breeding area for a couple of months. In 2014 he left Norfolk on 25 June, and in 2015 on 17 June.

We have a winner in the great Cuckoo race of 2016! Norfolk Cuckoo Stanley started his journey from Ivory Coast in west Africa on 7th April and 3,000 miles later, he is back in England. Stanley was tagged at Cranwich Heath, just a stone's throw away from BTO headquarters in Norfolk. He returned to the same general area in 2015 and it'll be interesting to see if he comes back again this year. He is currently just south of Yeovil in Devon. During his spring migration in 2015, Stanley stopped off in Cornwall on his way back to Norfolk.

Poor quality locations show that Stanly probably left Algeria late on 10 April, crossing the Mediterranean during the night. By 2am on 11 April he was on a small island (Cabrera) off the south coast of Mallorca. By 13 April he had successfully crossed the Mediterranean and was in northern Spain, hot on the heels of Vigilamus. Stanley took around five hours to cross the sea to Cabrera on his overnight flight.

Having rested in the Ivory Coast and been overtaken by Coo and David, Stanley has suddenly sprung back into action, with his latest signals trasmitting from northern Algeria. Stanley is now in second position in the Cuckoo race back to the UK. Will he catch Vigilamus?

Stanley has been settled in Ivory Coast for over ten days now. Locations received from him during the morning of 1 April show that he has been overtaken by Coo and David and is now lagging behind four other Cuckoos in the race to get back to the UK.

On 22 March we recieved a series of location from Stanley's tag that showed he had left the banks of the River Komoé. He has flown 78km (48 miles) west and is now hot on the heels of Peckham, the only tagged Cuckoo currently ahead of him.

Stanley seems to have the wind beneath his wings, since lunchtime on 8 March he has travelled a further 793km (493 miles) west to Ivory Coast, flying over Benin, Togo and Ghana on the way. He is Currently close to the River Komoé, 60km (37 miles) from the border with Ghana.

Since we last heard form him Stanley has flown a huge distance. Between the early morning of 1 March and around midday on 8 March he travelled 2,033km (1,263 miles) through Congo and Cameroon into Nigeria. He is currently in eastern Nigeria,102km (63 miles) from the border with Benin.

We recieved a series of locations from Stanley during the early morning on 1 March that showed he was still close to the Bolomba river in DRC. It may only be a matter fo time before he makes his move north and west.