Thomas last appeared to be heading out over the Mediterranean on  24 July and since then we’ve had 'radio silence'. It’s unlikely we will hear from his tag again but as his disappearance occurred after a prolonged period of declining battery charge, it’s impossible to say whether he died south of Spain (in north Africa or during the desert crossing) or whether his tag's battery gave out when it was hit with the sun during the desert crossing.  

We were getting a bit worried about Thomas after a period of almost two weeks without an update from his tag. When we last heard from him he was near Ales in souther France. Finally on Monday 22 July we received a couple of poor quality locations showing that he had flown 840 km (521 miles) south west and was just south of Daimiel in Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. He didn't hang around though and by 19:24 on the evening of July 24 he had flown another 297 km (185 miles) south west and was on the Costa del Sol, between Marbella and Fuengirola, approximately 4.5 km (2.8 miles) inland. It looks like he may have just been passing through as the last signal we received last night at 20:30 showed him to be 12 km (7.8 miles) due south of Marbella, out over the Mediterranean. This was a poor quality signal so we'll have to await the next update to find out if Thomas has made his move to Africa.

We didn’t have to wait long to find out as, by the 20 June, Thetford Cuckoo Thomas was on his way south! Late that evening he was flying over the English Channel, at least 110 Km (65 miles) from his tagging location. The next set of transmissions on 22 June, show he had journeyed another 695km (430 miles) and was located north of Auvergne in the Livradois-Forez Regional Nature Park. Not yet finished he appears to have continued southwards and by the 23 June he was close to Ales.  All-in-all he had taken a huge trip of 950km (590 miles) since the evening of the 20 June.

Thomas has been pretty faithful to the area of Thetford Forest just to the west of Mundford. He is currently in a forest block just on the southern edge of the village. In 2018 he left the UK on 14 June - when will he leave this year?

Thomas has been pretty faithful to the Cranwich Heath area but he has also ventured further south. Whilst out birdwatching at Lakenheath Fen in May, two members of BTO staff saw a tagged Cuckoo, and looking at the data Thomas has visited the area a few times. However, whilst out with the Cuckoo team on Cranwich Heath we saw him again, determinedly chasing another male Cuckoo and a female. In 2018 he left for Africa on 14 June, so he may not be around the heath much longer.

In our last update we reported that Thomas was all at sea, 155 km (96 miles) west of the Saint-Pierre Light in Penmarch on the coast of Brittany in fact. Well, a short time later Thomas' tag transmitted again showing that he had covered the remaining 719 Km (447 miles) back to his tagging location in Thetford Forest, much to our relief. 

Thomas is making steady progress towards home having flown another 280 Km (173 miles) north west from his last location near Monesterio in the south of Extremadura to his new location in central Portugal. He is in the eastern part of the Serra de Estrela Natural Park.

Thomas has pushed north and made it into Spain. He is currently to the southwest of Gibraltar and the south of Algeciras, and only 2km (1.5 miles) from the coast.  

A series of poor locations received from his tag during the morning of 15 April show that he is in northern Morocco around 40km (25 miles) from the Strait of Gibraltar. We will have to wait for good quality locations for this to update on his map.

A series of locations received from Thomas' tag during the morning of 11 April show that he is around three-quarters of the way across the Sahara and in central Algeria. This will update on his map automatically overnight. So far he has travelled 2,232km (1,387 miles) from his last location in Ivory Coast - he has another 800km (500 miles) to go before he reaches the northern edge of the desert.

A data transmission from Thomas' tag on Wednesday morning showed that he has flown 530 miles (852 Km) West from his last location in south west Nigeria to his new location in Ivory Coast. He is now in the east of Ivory Coast, 110 miles (177 Km) north east of the capital Yamoussoukro. He is just 5 miles (8 Km) east of Sherwood Cuckoo Robinson and 30 miles (48 Km) north west of Sussex Cuckoo Knepp.

Thomas is still in Nigeria but has moved 373km (231 miles) to the west. He is in an area of forest to the south of the town of Osu.

Having spent the whole of February in the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, on the 1 March Thomas moved 65km (41 miles) north and west leaving it behind him. He is currently in farmland to the north of Adipke, Nigeria.

Thomas has been in the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, Nigeria for a month now. He seems settled in the northern part of the park in fairly thick forest.

Thomas is still close to the border with Cameroon and just to the east of the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary. It might not be too long before we see Thomas make a concerted move west.

Thomas' tag gave us a series of locations during the early hours of 31 January that put him in the southeast corner of Nigeria, close to the border with Cameroon. He is just over 1,000km (600 miles) from his last location in Gabon.

Having not moved much during the last 10 weeks, Thomas headed north and east on 30 December and crossed the border into Gabon, undertaking a journey of 157km (97 miles). Thomas may well have begun the long journey back to the UK. The average spring arrival date for Cuckoo in the UK is 19 April - he has a long way to go yet. 

Thomas hasn't moved much at all since his arrival in the rainforest. Locations received from his tag during the last week show that he is alive and well and moving short distances within the forest.

Thomas is still settled in the rainforest in southwest Congo. He has moved around a little and is currently 40km (25 miles) south of his arrival point in the forest.

Since arriving in the southwestern corner of Congo a month ago, Thomas hasn't moved much and seems settled in an area of dense forest. He is sending lots of locations and moving around quite a lot, albeit within the forest close to his arrival point.

Since arriving in the Congo Basin Thomas has moved south and west into the rainforest proper. He is currently in southwest Congo in dense forest. As the crow flies, he is 6,222km (3,866 miles) from his East Anglian breeding site.

Thomas has reached the Congo basin and is in rainforest to the north of the Teke plateau. He is the second of our tagged Cuckoos to reach the Congo this year. He is now 941km (585 miles) southeast of his stopover site in eastern Nigeria.

Thomas has moved close to the border with Cameroon. He is in the northern part of the Gashaka Gumti National Park in an area of savannah grassland.

We expected Thomas to stage a little longer in Burkina Faso but he has surprised us all by moving a long way east, 1,337km (830 miles) to be precise. He is now in central Nigeria, around 60km (38 miles) south of the capital Abuja. He is currently under a band of thunderstorms and some fairly heavy rain.

Having spent time in Senegal and Mali, Thomas is now in the southwest of Burkina Faso. He may well stay here for a couple of weeks before moving further east towards his final destination somewhere in the Congo Basin.

Thomas is on the southern edge of the Sahara but he didn't get there via a long flight out into the Atlantic, as his map suggests. The satellite passing over the Cuckoo tags will sometimes receive a series of poor locations, and the coding behind the automatic map updates is such that it usually ignores these, sometimes we do get one of these slip through and this is the case with Thomas in the Atlantic. His journey across the desert will have seen him moving along the western edge of the desert before heading southeast into Senegal.

Thomas is on the brink of his desert crossing on the northern edge of the desert in the Anti Atlas Mountains of Morocco. If he crosses in a straight line from here he will cross at the desert's narrowest point, around 1,900km (1,200 miles). Next stop Mali?

Thomas didn't stay long in northern Spain, two days in fact, before heading off south. During the evening of 9 July his tag told us he was in southeast Spain just to the east of Granada. It will be interesting to see how long he stays here before launching his Sahara desert crossing.

Having spent time in southeastern France, it was open to debate which route Thomas might take as both Sapin and Italy were options from there. There is no doubt now though. He is currently in Catalonia, in the wooded hills just to the north of Barcelona

For a short while it seemed that Thomas might be overtaken by Lambert but this wasn't to be, Thomas is still currently our most southerly Cuckoo, having moved 222km (138 miles) further south. He is on the Mediterranean coast close to Narbonne.

Since having his tag fitted, Thomas spent the next 9 days moving around his tagging site in Thetford Forest, Norfolk. However, during the early morning of 14 May we recieved a series of locations from his tag that showed he had left the forest, heading southeast over East Anglia and Kent, before crossing the English Channel and flying over northern France. He didn't stop there, he is currently in the south of France, in a patch of woodland close to Langeac. He has flown 850km (528 miles) in two days and is our most southerly Cuckoo at this time.

Thomas is still moving around the area of his tagging site. He is currently in Thetford Forest, southeast of Methwold.