Updates from our Cuckoos

Despite, in our last blog, trying to gently prepare people for a possible death in our Cuckoo family, Chris has come alive again! A series of fixes have shown his tag is charging and that he is in the Moselle region of France. He has moved southwards 280km to an area of woods, 40km west of Strasbourg. This area is a popular tourist destination with some spectacular views (try googling the "Pays du Dabo"), so hopefully he is enjoying the views!

We have received no new locations for Chris – however, the data received in a brief transmission at the beginning of his tag’s ‘on’ period yesterday (29 June) morning showed that the tag is not charging well. There are a number of possible reasons for this – the tag could be failing, it could be failing to charge because of the environment Chris is in, or Chris may be dead, perhaps taken by a falcon or Sparrowhawk, and the tag lying on the ground. Our colleagues in Denmark tell us that they ‘lost’ a couple of their birds only for them to re-appear later when the tag regained charge. Watch this space.

We have not received any locations for Chris during the last two ‘on’ periods for his tag. We are currently investigating whether his tag is functioning correctly and hope to have more news later in the week.

On Wednesday morning Chris was still in the Netherlands 20km from Maastricht. He appears to have settled in an area of woodland between the towns of Sittard and Born.

Early on Monday morning (20 June) Chris was still in The Netherlands about 20km (12 miles) NNE of Maastricht. We are interested to see where he will go next – as he had left Thetford Forest to the south we had expected him to follow Clement into France, both he and Kasper are to the south-east of their tagging locations. Will they continue in that direction or turn west and go past the west end of the Alps like Clement?

An accurate location received in the afternoon of Friday (17 June) places Chris in a narrow finger of the Netherlands just a few kms from both Belguim and Germany! Chris has moved 370km (230 miles) due east from Sedlescombe in two days – he is our third Cuckoo to leave the country.

Chris is still in the Sedlescombe area of East Sussex.

We have been contacted by Mr Patrick Roper who lives in the Sedlescombe area and he reports that the area has been good for Cuckoos this year, unlike other places nearby. He wonders whether Chris might have homed in on the area because of this? It could well explain why Chris hasn’t moved further south.

At the time of writing, no further, accurate positions have been received for Chris.

Chris remains in the Sedlescombe area in East Sussex, although in the evening of Saturday (11 June) he did make a brief excursion out to an area of woodland near Netherfield, north-west of Battle.