Updates from our Cuckoos

No further signals have been received which means we haven’t heard anything from Nelson’s tag for almost five weeks. We are a little worried this may spell bad news for Nelson, however, it is too early to tell yet. 

The last good signal for Nelson was received on 16 July but poor quality transmissions on 29 July indicate he is still in the same area of south France. 

We were waiting for further signals to confirm whether Nelson had left Norfolk and transmissions received from Nelson’s tag on 9 July show that he had moved to the south of France and was near Villefranche-de-Rouergue, about 90km (55 miles) north of Toulouse.  From here he covered another 380 km (240 miles) in a south-easterly direction and locations by early this morning (12 July) placed him a couple of miles inland at La Mole, near to the coast east  of Toulon. 

Poor quality signals on 7 July indicate that Nelson has left Norfolk and crossed the Channel to France to the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. We will have to wait for the next good transmissions to confirm his current location and for this to show on the map.  

Apart from Skinner, the other three of our Cuckoos tagged in the Norfolk Broads remain in their tagging locations and have yet to move despite 12 out of 18 of our tagged Cuckoos having left the UK.  Lyster, one of the Cuckoos tagged in the broads in year 1 of the project was the last to leave that year on 22 July (while the other four all left in June) and earned himself the nickname ‘Lyster the Laggard’. Will our Broads Cuckoos be last to leave in year 3? 

Nelson was tagged at St Benet's Abbey on the second attempt at catching, on 29 May, wind having put paid to the first attempt on 12 May. Since then, Nelson has stayed in the area to its south-west and, more recently, the area around Upton Broad about 2.5km (1.5 mile) to the south-east. 

After a public vote, the Broads Authority, who have funded the cost of the satellite-tag, have chosen to name Cuckoo 128301, Nelson, for its Norfolk associations. Nelson was tagged St Benet's Abbey at Holme on the Norfolk Broads.