Updates from our Cuckoos

In the early hours of 15 August we received a transmission from David's tag - the first since 20 July - which revealed his new location in Sudan! He is the seventh of our tagged Cuckoos to reach Africa and is the most easterly Cuckoo. He is in west Sudan, close to the border with Chad, where three of the Cuckoos are currently. The series of transmissions received show he moved south around 190km (120 miles) during the tag's on period.

Apart from Indy, there is little news for the Cuckoos tagged in Wales – we have not received any recent locations for Iolo as his tag is not charging well (which might suggest he is soon to head south), Lloyd has moved 45km (28 miles) SW of Turin and David is still in Montenegro.

The last transmissions received on the 20 July were of an 'unconfirmed' nature but indicate that David remains in Montenegro. He has been here since the 27 June so we might expect him to make a move shortly.

There has been no movement for three of the Cuckoos tagged in Wales over the past week, with David still stopping over in Montenegro and Iolo and Indy doing likewise in the Po watershed. Lloyd, however, has been up to some very odd movements – see his blog for further details.

In common with the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland and England, over the past week there has been little movement form those tagged in Wales. The exception was Indy who, as reported in his blog last week, moved from France into Italy, joining Iolo and becoming the second Cuckoo to be staging in the Po watershed (Reacher passed though the region very briefly but is now staging close to the border between France and Spain). 115597 is still close to Marseille in France.

David continues to set precedents for our satellite-tagged Cuckoos. He was the first Cuckoo tracked to Slovakia and now is the first to transmit from Montenegro. We received data on the 25 June confirming his location in Slovakia, and the next transmission, received yesterday on the 27, came from Montenegro. That's a journey of 700km (440 miles), taking David very close to the Adriatic Sea. Will he cross the sea and stage in Italy?

Between the 20 and 23 June we received further transmissions showing David was indeed in Germany. He didn't stay there for long though - he continued on his south-easterly trajectory and by the evening of the 25 June he was 680km (422 miles) further on in central Slovakia. He is the first of our Cuckoos to transmit from this country. This is also the furthest east transmission we have received within Europe – his longitude is the same as the most easterly point any of the Cuckoos reached in Africa last winter, which was Chris’ location in southern Chad last autumn.
He currently appears to be in a forested landscape close to Partizanske. We are wondering whether David will head back west towards the stop-over in northern Italy or whether he will use a different stop-over further east, perhaps in or close to the Balkans.
 

David has followed the example set by our other Welsh male Cuckoos and made a move East. Like Iolo, he has taken a more northerly route and arrived in Norfolk.

We received data from his satellite tag on Monday 11 June that showed he was still in the area where he was tagged on the 30 May 2012 near Tregaron in Wales. We next heard from David's tag on the morning of Saturday 16 June, when we received a number of transmissions that gave a location near North Walsham in Norfolk. That's a distance of 360km (225 miles) travelled just north of due east between transmission locations.

At least two years old and an adult male, Cuckoo 115594 was tagged on 30 May 2012 near Tregaron, Ceredigion, Wales. Since he was caught he has remained in the area of Tregaron.