Updates from our Cuckoos

Wallace is still in south-western Germany but by the morning of Friday 3 August he had moved approximately 95km (63 miles) ENE to a similar forested landscape.

On Saturday morning (28 July) Wallace was still in Picardie but according to a series of unconfirmed locations, by the early hours of this morning (30 July) he had moved 390km (243 miles) ESE to a location in extreme south-western Germany. If these prove to be correct, he is approximately 23km (13 miles) NE of the Petite Camargue Alsacienne - a research station in the south-eastern corner of France where Valentin Amrhein and his group from University of Basel have undertaken exciting research on the function of Nightingale song. He appears to be in a forested landscape to the east of the river valley containing the Nightingales.

Wallace remains in the region of Picardie, but has moved a small distance in a south-easterly direction. He is now 11km ( 7miles) south of Tergnier and less than 1 km away from ‘Circuit de Folembray’ racetrack. He is presumably resting up from his long flight from Scotland.

On Friday morning (20 July) a location from Wallace showed that he had finally left Scotland and was in the Lake District, 8.5km (5 miles) east of Keswick. Just as it was getting light on Saturday morning he was 5km (3 miles) east of Wigan and just as it was getting light this morning (23 July) he was in France, south west of Montdidier, Picardie, 558km (347 miles) south east of his last stop in the UK. Of all five of the Scottish tagged Cuckoos, Wallace has taken the most westerly route out of the UK.

Having still been in north-eastern France on Wednesday, by first thing this morning John had moved 290km (180 miles) due S. His new location is just west of the south end of the Jura Mountains 32km (20 miles) NNW of Oyonnax and 61k (38 miles) NW of Geneva. As he moves into southern Europe, he leaves Chance (still south of Berlin according to an confirmed location received Thursday – his tag is not charging well and we might expect him to move south soon) and Wallace (still near Troon on Wednesday evening) as our only Cuckoos (excluding Idemili) left in northern Europe.

With the exception of Roy, there has been little recent movement by the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland - Wallace remains in Ayrshire; BB remains in north-eastern Italy; Mungo remains in Switzerland close to Mont Blanc; Chance remains just south of Berlin.

Signals received on 4 July showed that Wallace had skipped over the border into England. He moved 62km (39 miles) ENE transmitting from the area surrounding Harwood Forest in Northumberland.

Having moved to dead on the border between England and Scotland 14km (9 miles) NE of Gretna on 30 June, Wallace had hopped across it by 3 July. By 4 July he had moved 62km (39 miles) ESE and appeared to be moving around the area surrounding Harwood Forest in Northumberland. He didn’t stay there long though and by 6 July he had moved 172km (107 miles) WNW back to the location that he had occupied during the second half of June! This is the second time Wallace has moved south only to retrace his steps back north – we can only assume that the new locations he has visited have not been suitable and he has decided to cut his losses and return to the presumably superior feeding grounds here.

Both Wallace and Roy remain in Scotland whilst the three other Scottish birds are currently in Europe. Transmissions received yesterday indicated that Wallace was heading southwards. He moved 30km (20 miles) from his position between Irvine and Troon and was close to the village of Patna. From here he headed off in a south-easterly direction, flying 110km (70miles) before transmitting from Canonbie. He is very close to the Scottish-English border.

On 12 June Wallace was still close to his tagging location. By 14 June, however, he had moved 154km (95 miles) due S to a location east of Stranraer. He didn’t stay there though and by that evening he had moved north again, to a location between Troon and Irvine, 80km (50 miles) to the north. He was still there when we last heard from his tag in the evening of 18 June.