Updates from our Cuckoos

Having been so quick off the mark and being the first of our tagged Cuckoos to leave, we might have expected Cuach Cores to be well on his way south by now. But instead, he has spent the past five weeks or so in north-western Italy. He has remained close to the River Elvo, between Salussola and Carisio in the Province of Vercelli.

New updates received from Cores' tag between midnight and 7 am this morning (4 August) show that he has flown 212 km (132 miles) south-west, back over the Alps into south-eastern France. He is currently a few km east of the town of Digne in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department of France. Could this be the start of Cuach Cores' next major leg of his journey south?

Cuach Cores has spent the last few days in the area close to the River Elvo, between Salussola and Carisio in the Province of Vercelli, in the Italian region of Piedmont. 

Over the last 24 hours Cores has flown 277 km (172 miles) north-east from his last location near Rustrel in the south of France. He crossed over the Alps to his new location, just south of the town of Buronzo in the Province of Vercelli, in the Italian region of Piedmont. 

Cuach Cores has continued his journey south through France. He has spent the last 24 hours close to the village of Rustrel, in the Parc Naturel Regional du Luberon in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of south-eastern France.

Cuach Cores has continued his journey south through France – by around 9 p.m. last night he had crossed the Loire and was in the south-eastern corner of the Maine-et-Loire department of Western France. His tag shows him in woodland close to the Canal de la Dive, just south of the commune of Bellevigne-les-Châteaux. 

Our Cuckoo tracking work has shown us that our male Cuckoos set off on their migrations back to Africa sooner than we had previously thought, often during the first few days of June. We are excited to report that Cuach Cores has become the first of our tagged birds to set off this year.

Updates received last night showed that he had crossed the Irish Sea, spending some time yesterday evening in Dylan Thomas country, close to Laugharne and Llansteffan in South West Wales. Further updates received this morning suggest that he didn’t hang about here but pressed on south towards northern France. The most recent update showed him nearing the Brittany coastline close to Saint Malo and Mont Saint-Michel.

Hopefully we’ll receive further updates very soon confirming that he has reached dry land in France.

Cuach is Irish for Cuckoo, and Cores is a mountain in Killarney National Park where this bird was tagged. He was one of several handsome male Cuckoos caught by the tagging team on the morning of 17 May.

On 3 June Cores had moved east to a new position, just south of Ballincollig, but he soon progressed to the coast before moving north to Slievenamon Bog.

He has since moved west, and at lunchtime on 6 June he was in or over Garryowen, a suburb of Limerick.