Updates from our Cuckoos

On the afternoon of the 7 July we received a transmission from England. Then early yesterday morning (10 July) we received a series of locations with uncertain accuracy all placing him in the Champagne-Ardenne region 25km (15 miles) north of Troyes.

These new points won't show on the map yet, but should update over the next few days as we receive further transmissions to verify the uncertain locations from this morning. The distance between his last location in England and this new location was 490km (303 miles). This means that all our English Cuckoos are now on their way south!

In recent days there has been little movement from the Cuckoos tagged in England. Reacher remains near Perpignan and looks poised to take the westerly route into Africa through Iberia that Clement and Lyster used last year. Chris remains close to Antwerp and is now 24km (15 miles) NE of the city. 115589 is still about 110km (968 miles) east of Reims in northern France, whilst Lyster has repeated the pattern from last year and is the last of the Cuckoos tagged in England still in the country.

Lyster remains in Norfolk and, with 115589's recent movement across the sea to Europe, is the last of our English Cuckoos still in England. Will he be the last to leave again this year? There are still two Scottish birds who also remain in the UK.

Since arriving back in the UK, Lyster has been faithful to the Norfolk Broads area. A location received yesterday showed this still to be the case. He was on the outskirts of Hales, Norfolk. He is currently 20km (14miles) from his 2011 tagging location. He was the last bird to leave the UK in 2011. Will that also be the case this year? Only time will tell.

A transmission from Lyster's tag yesterday shows that he has headed back in the same direction he came from. He has travelled around 15km (10 miles) and is once again close to the River Chet in an area known as Hardley Flood, northeast of Loddon. This area consists of shallow lagoons and reedbeds which act as a spillway for the River Chet.

Lyster's tag last transmitted on the morning of the 5 June and showed that he was close to the village of Hempnall. He has moved around 16km /10 miles from his previous position near Nogdam End.

Lyster continues his tour of the Broads and is now back in the Yare valley. As of yesterday evening he was approximately three-hundred metres north east of Nogdam End and 10km (6.5 miles) south west of Acle.

 As of two days ago Lyster was back in the Broads, just west of Acle. He really is covering a lot of ground, presumably in search of female cuckoos. Anecdotal evidence suggests that females are in short supply at the moment.

 Since arriving back in the UK, Lyster has been anything but laggard. Having covered a large area of the Broads, as of yesterday, he was near to the Norfolk/Suffolk border, 6km (3.7 miles) to the west of Diss. He is now 40km (25 miles) south west of where the BTO/BBC team found him in the Broads.

 At 05.46 this morning, Lyster was in a small patch of woodland on the south east edge of Chedgrave in the Norfolk Broads. He is 16km south of his previous location near Ranworth. It is amazing just how much ground he has covered since he arrived in the Broads.