Updates from our Cuckoos

A series of locations received early yesterday (29 August) showed that Roy had indeed initiated his migration two days previously and that he was moving south over eastern Libya – the location on the map shows where he had reached by 1030hrs. This suggests that he had moved SSE through Albania and Greece before crossing over the Mediterranean Sea and into Libya. His tag should resume transmissions tomorrow afternoon, at which time we hope he will have joined the other four Cuckoos that are currently in southern Chad.

From the area of Danilovgrad, Montenegro, a series of unconfirmed transmissions show that on the evening of August 26, Roy was moving in a southeasterly direction. The last transmission received shows him over the middle of Lake Scutari, just inside the border of Albania. Is he making his move south? We expect further transmissions tomorrow morning. 

From his unconfirmed location in Croatia on 8 August, Roy travelled south, joining David in Montenegro, on the evening of 10 August. Since then he has been travelling around the municpality of Danilovgrad, presumably searching for a good source of food.

From Austria to Italy and then back to Austria! Having been briefly in Italy, Roy moved back into Austria by 1 August and was again a few kms north of Millstätter See. Yesterday evening we received a single unconfirmed location that put Roy in Croatia. If confirmed, it would appear that he is following David and, presumably, BB by taking a route east of the Adriatic Sea. 

Roy moved west from Austria into northern Italy on the evening of 25 July. He has travelled around 192 km (119 miles) and is in a wooded area close to a the comunes of Weitental and Margen. Will he stop and feed up here or move straight through?

Having reached southern Germany by 10 July, Roy continued to press on and by 13 July he was in the state of Carinthia in southern Austria. By 15 July he was settled a few kms north of Millstätter See, giving a total onward movement of 245km (153 miles) SSE form his position in Germany.

Roy has travelled 1080km (that's around 670 miles) to reach Germany! His last tag transmission was on the 8 July from North York Moors National Park but by the evening of the 10 July he was close to the town of Regensburg in the south-west of Germany.  This means Wallace is the last Scottish Cuckoo to leave, and with good reason to believe Lyster has left too, he becomes the last of all our male Cuckoos to leave the UK.   

Our last Scottish Cuckoo has been given a name. 115593 will now be known as Roy after Rob Roy (Robert Roy MacGregor), Scotland's own version of Robin Hood. Rob Roy was born at Glengyle, at the head of Loch Katrine where the Cuckoos were tagged, in what is now Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.
 

Roy has left Wallace behind in Scotland, and followed the same route as Mungo before him to arrive in the North York Moors National Park.

On 1 July, Roy's satellite tag was transmitting from 10km south of Dumfries. By the evening of 3 July we received data from the North York Moors National Park – this is a movement of 180km (110 miles) in a south-easterly direction. This is the second of our Scottish Cuckoos to arrive in this area and, like Mungo before him, Roy should find plenty of large hairy caterpillars here in the rough grassland adjacent to the heather moorland. Will he continue to follow the same migratory route as Mungo, who is currently in Switzerland?