Updates from our Cuckoos

David is on the path south not too far from his last position in Bosnia. He flew 210 kilometres (130 miles), returning once again to western Montenegro, as in previous years, and resting near the Lovcen National Park.  The earliest we have received transmissions from Africa from David's tag in the other years of the project is the 4 August and the latest the 25 August so we expect that he will spend a few weeks in the area, unless he is already well-fueled for the journey.  

David didn’t spend long in the Po Valley before moving on.  Low quality signals received on the 25 July show he had already moved on further eastwards with a good quality signal on 28 confirming that he was in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Last year his tag also transmitted a location from here, though he arrived earlier in July, before moving to Montenegro, a country he has visited each year since 2012, a week later.  He appears to be a bit behind schedule this year so it will be interesting to see how long he spends here and whether he continues to Montenegro before making his crossing to Africa.

By 23 July, David had left France and travelled east to Italy and the Po Valley.

David has left Wales, and disregarding Chester whose current location is unknown, he is the last of our tagged Cuckoos to depart from the UK. He has travelled over 910km (560 miles) to northern France. 

David is one of four out of eighteen Cuckoos that we are following this year that is still in the UK. Last year he left Wales for France on 1 July, so, he could leave any day now.

David is back at his breeding site near Tregaron in Wales, completing his third complete migration with his satellite tag since 2012. He arived on 28 April, at least two weeks earlier than in 2014 and a week earlier than in 2013. 

David has moved a little closer to the UK and is now in northern France, poised to make his return! 

Transmissions received yesterday show that David has completed his Sahara crossing and made it to Spain, completing a 3350km (2,000 mile) journey from his last location in Siera Leone on 7 April. He is now in the Extremadura region.

In the first year we tracked David (2012/13) he returned to the UK on 27 April but due to cold and wet conditions turned around and retreated to France, returning again on 9 May when conditions had imprvoed. In 2013/14 he arived in Spain much later on 28 April and didn't return to the UK until the 14 May. What will he do this year, especially given his earlier than normal return date to Spain?  

On the evening of 26 March a transmission received from David showed that he was on the move again and had travelled 650km (400 miles) further west. He is now in Sierra Leone, close to the border with Guinea. 

In both previous years he has also set off on his desert crossing from Sierra Leone but in both cases he arrived there in the first week of April. In 2013 he started his desert crossing on 15 April and headed to Mauritania while in 2014 he left on the 17 April but went slightly further west still, to Senegal, and then on to Morocco. 

Given his earlier movement this year, could he be the first Cuckoo to turn north and head home?

At 04.28 on 22 March David was still in Cameroon but by 14.59 on 24 March he had moved 1923km (1195 miles) west, and was in Ivory Coast, just north of Bouake. He covered this distance in 45.5 hours, averaging a speed of 42km per hour (26 mph). It will be interesting to see how long he stays where he is to allow him to recover after such a mammoth journey.