On 3 August we received a further location from Larry’s tag showing that he had not moved from his reported position, in northern Libya. Unfortunately, there’s no way he could have survived for that long in the arid conditions so we must conclude that he has perished there. 

This is especially sad news as he was our longest surviving active Cuckoo, having been tagged in 2015 and entering his fifth year of tracking. 

David, first tracked in spring 2012, holds the title for longest tracked journey, having been tracked to mid-winter (December 2016) in his fifth year. Chris, our most famous Cuckoo, was in second place in regard to length and duration of tracked journey, with his last signal on 8 August 2015 in his fifth year.  Larry was just one successful desert crossing away from surpassing Chris, who also perished during his desert crossing, but had reached the Tibesti mountains in Northern Chad.

We are grateful to everyone who has supported Larry over the years and watched his incredible journey. 

Poor quality signals on lunchtime of the 25 June indicate that Larry had moved south and was north-west of Peterborough. We were expecting to see further transmissions today which might show some movements but nothing has been received as yet. We hope to receive something in the next couple of days which reveals his new location.

We haven’t heard from Larry since 21 February but at the time the data we got from his tag showed that he was alive and that the battery charge on the tag was OK. All we can do is hope that he will ‘pop-up’ again soon.

Even though the locations we are getting from Larry’s tag are of poor quality they all show him the rainforest to the north of the Teke Plateau in northern Congo, so we are sure this is where he is. Once he pops out of the dense rainforest we should begin to receive better quality locations.

We were getting quite concerned about Larry. Having not heard from his tag for 11 days we were beginning to fear the worst but did also consider that the battery that powers his tag might not be getting a very good charge. The island of Cres, his stopover site in Croatia, is very wooded and he was almost certainly spending time under the canopy feeding. However, we now know that Larry is alive and well and crossing the Sahara.

Larry is on his fourth migration since he was fitted with his tag in 2015. he seems to time his desert crossing for the last week in July, and is normally on the southern edge of the desert in the first few days of August. This year he seems to be timing things perfectly again. His tag stopped transmitting around breakfast on 26 July, it will be powered down for 48 hours to allow the solar panel to charge the onboard battery and then power up again around breakfast on 28 July. It will be interesting to see where he is when this happens.

Two more Cuckoos have begun their journeys northwards from their wintering locations. From Angola, Larry has flown 675km (420 miles) north east to Central Congo.He is now to the north-east of Okoyo. This is similar to what he has done in the previous two years, before moving into Cameroon and then on to west Africa. In the first year he then made his desert crossing from Nigeria, but in the second year that we tracked him he went much further west - crossing the desert from Guinea! What will he do this year?

Selborne has also headed north and is now in northern Gabon, close to the coast, and the Reserva Natural del Estuario del Muniborder, a Wetland of International Importance. He is just south of the border with Equatorial Guinea, and has travelled 350km (218 miles) from his previous location.

Larry has continued south from Chad, where he's been since the beginning of September. By the 9 November he had covered 1175km (730 miles) to reach the Cuvette-Ouest region of Congo, not too far south-east from Victor in Gabon. He didn't stop here for long though and by the early afternoon of 11 November he was 760km (470 miles) further south in northern Angola.

Larry’s southward migration from the UK to Angola has been remarkable. Weather conditions during the stopover period in Italy were harsh, incredibly hot and dry conditions were experienced across the whole of the northern Mediterranean area with wildfires being a feature from Spain to Croatia. Presumably in response to these conditions, and the probable lack of invertebrate food, Larry moved north to Poland, undertaking a journey of around 1300km (800 miles), at a time when we would have expected him to head south across the Sahara. Larry spent several weeks in Poland, and it would seem a wise move, from here he was able to undertake his migration to sub-Saharan Africa via the Balkans, a part of the world we hadn’t seen him move through before. Even though his migration this autumn was unusual, he is right back at his wintering location in Angola.

In the previous two years we've been following him he has also ventured to Angola, but normally to a location in the north-east, where he has remained for a while before then heading west towards the coast. He appears to have gone directly to this area now and is north of Tomboco. It's likely that, as in previous years, he will remain here until at least mid-December or possibly even mid-January, depending on conditions. 

We've seen several of our birds back track to previous stopover sites when conditions haven't been perfect for onward travel, but Larry has undertaken a journey from Italy northwards to Poland, a country in which he hasn't transmitted from since we've been tracking him. In fact none of our Cuckoos, since the project began in 2011, have ever sent signals from Poland.  This is much further northeast within Europe than normal and almost puts him on the same latitude as Peckham who is still in the UK!

We think this is in response to the very hot conditions in the Mediterranean region and is an escape flight rather than a return to last stopover site. We're surprised to have seen him travel so far north. Tracking these Cuckoos still continues to throw new light upon their migration! 

Larry spent a week in Hungary before heading south and west into Croatia. During his southerly migration in 2015 he stopped off in the same area, close to the town of Bogatic. This part of Croatia is currently experiencing a heatwave, with the daytime temperature forcast to get close to 40 degrees C during the next few days. It might be that Larry spends more time in the shade, so we might see a lull in the locations received from his tag as the solar panel on the tag gets less sunlight to charge the batteries.Only time will tell.

Since arriving here on 4 May, Larry has remained in the area just north of Stocks Reservoir, very close to the location at which he was tagged on 3 June 2015.

Larry only stayed in Norfolk for a very brief visit before setting off again and by the early hours of the 4th May, Larry was back in the Forest of Bowland. He left there on the 26th June last year so we expect him to stay in this area for the next six to eight weeks. 

Larry arrived back in England during the evening of 2 May, when a signal received from his tag placed him in the dunes at Burnham Overy Staithe. Only time will tell how long he stays here as he will be keen to get back to the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, and begin the task of finding and chasing female Cuckoos.

It looks like Larry began his desert crossing on 10 April from Nigeria, crossing the Sahara at its widest point, around 2,600km (1,600 miles). A poor location received during the morning of 15 April put him in the Grand Erg Oriental Desert in northern Algeria. Several good quality locations received during the evening of 17 April showed that he had made it across the desert and was on Sardinia, northeast of Paulilatino.

Locations received from Larry on 26 March showed that he had left Cameroon and headed west into Nigeria. More locations from the early morning of 5 April show that he is still in the area of Nigeria he arrived in ten days earlier. He is currently just south of Old Oyo National Park and just over 100km (70 miles) from the border with Benin.

A series of good locations received from Larry's tag on 22 March showed that he was still in Cameroon. However, he has moved 51km (31 miles) north, and closer to the border with Central African Republic. He is currently in an area of riverine forest 6km (4 miles) from the border.

Larry is on his way! During the afternoon of the 5 March we  received several locations from him that showed he was in Cameroon, 802km (498 miles) north and west of his last location on the southern edge of the Congo rainforest. He is currently 54km (33 miles) west of the border with Central African Republic.

A couple of poor quality locations received for Larry on 15 February show that he is still in DRC, close to the Congo border. Hopefully, he will move north and west soon.

Having spent the last two months in Angola, Larry is now back in DRC, moving 639km (397 miles) north-east. He is currently 80km (50 miles) east of the border with Congo.

A location received from Larry on the 16 December showed that he was still settled in Angola.

Having reported on 5 November that Larry was settled in DRC he promptly moved overnight. During the early hours of 6 November we received several locations from him that showed he had moved 682km (424 miles) south west into Angola. He didn't stay here very long, and by 11 November had moved another 308km (191 miles) west. He is currently in northern Angola, 46km (29 miles) from the South Atlantic coast.

A location received from Larry on 3 November shows that he is settled close to Lake Mai, in DRC. He may well stay here for the next couple of months, only time will tell.

Since the last update, Larry has flown almost 600 miles south from his last location in the south of Chad to the south-western corner of the Central African Republic. He is probably now in or at the edge of the Congolian lowland forests.

After a few days, Larry has continued south and left the Tibesti Mountain area. He is now close to Lake Chad and safely across the desert.

By the early hours of the 8 August, Larry was in Chad, having made it to Africa, though some of you will have noticed an errant signal which appeared briefly on the map placing him to the east of Africa which has now been corrected!.  He is actually just south of the Tibesti Mountain area, where Peckham also stopped recently and raised concerns until we realised that the area had received rain and was probably a strategic stop rather than an indication anything was wrong. Hopefully we will shortly see Larry continue south after a brief rest as Peckham has done too. 

Larry has left Croatia and recently joined several other Cuckoos in Italy. However, he is much further south, near Matera in southern Italy. He has covered 370km (230 miles) from his last location. 

A signal received during the early hours of the 6 July showed that Larry had left Hungary and was on the Croatian coast, just west of Vodice, 387km (240 miles) from his previous location.

Newly named Cuckoo, Larry, is currently our most easterly Cuckoo. Having left his tagging site in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, he has flown 1,583km (983 miles) southeast and is currently in Hungary, southeast of Taplanszentkereszt.