Updates from our Cuckoos

There have been no movements of note from our Cuckoos in the last few days. Transmissions have been received from Indy and Chance today and Lloyd, David, Wallace, Roy, BB and Chris in the last few days. Hopefully there will be more to report after the weekend! 

Locations received from Lloyd’s tag on 31 Aug still place him in west Italy. There has been no further information on Iolo but both Indy and Davids’ tags have transmitted in the last few days. David is still in Chad whilst Indy remains in northern Nigeria.  

Over the past ten days, Lloyd left the Alpine foothills of western Italy for Provence and then left for an area close to the borders of France and Spain, west of Perpignan - apparently confirming that he was taking the western route in to Africa. Locations received on the afternoon of 26 August, however, showed he had returned east to Provence whilst further locations showed that by the afternoon of 28 August he was back in Italy, a few km from the position he held ten days ago! It seems likely that this reverse movement is related to food availability – perhaps Lloyd had difficulty finding suitable foraging areas towards the south-west? It is notable that of the three tracked Cuckoos that have headed to Africa in that direction this autumn, we have not heard from John or Reacher for some time and Lyster is missing in southern Mauritania, possibly having failed to deposit enough fuel for his desert crossing at his stop-over in Catalonia. 

We had thought that as Lloyd was in Italy, he would travel south and make the crossing to Africa from Sicily or the coast, like previous Cuckoos who staged in Italy have. However, Lloyd seems to have changed direction.  The last transmissions showed him travelling south along the French coast before the transmission period then finished as he neared Fréjus. Transmissions resumed yesterday evening (23 August) and located him in the very south of France, 60km (37 miles) west of Perpignan. It looks very likely that he will now cross to Africa from Spain. He has taken a very roundabout route to get here. Perhaps availability of food has had something to do with this?

In an unexpected and somewhat surprising twist, Lloyd has left the eastern slopes of the Alps in western Italy and moved back into France! Having still been in Italy on Sunday 19 August, yesterday afternoon (Tuesday 21 August) he was in the Alpine foothills of SE France approximately 80km (50 miles) to the S. During the evening he moved off SSW and when the last location was received, he was 64km (40 miles) away, about 6km (4 miles) NNW of the coastal town of Fréjus. Could this mean he is going to take a westerly route into Africa, through Iberia, after all? 

No further transmissions have been received from Iolo in Libya or Lloyd in Italy since the 9 August. Indy also remains in northern Italy and we last heard from him on the 13 August. 

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.

Having shot right over the Po floodplain from Tuscany to the Alps, since Sunday 15 July Lloyd has backtracked approximately 320km (200 miles) SW into the Po watershed close to Turin. He appears to have simply overshot the Po watershed when moving north form Tuscany and, having arrived in a less suitable area to its north, has now moved back on track by returning SW. He has taken a roundabout route, but he seems to have got there in the end! Having spent a couple of weeks in Provence, Lloyd may not need to spend too much more time preparing for the desert crossing. It will be interesting to see how long he remains in northern Italy.

Having spent some time in Provence, we had suspected that Lloyd would use the western route through Iberia to reach Africa, as Clement had last year. His movement east into Italy by Friday 13 July was therefore unexpected – but not so much as what followed!

By Sunday 15 July Lloyd had moved north – this was not so surprising as last year Chris moved north back into the Po watershed after apparently ‘overshooting’ it to a similar location that Lloyd was in, presumably finding conditions unsuitable this far south. What was surprising was how far north Lloyd moved – the locations received on Sunday placed him just north of the town of Bolzano in the Alps of northern Italy, 345km (208 miles) almost due N of his previous position in Tuscany. It’s very interesting that Lloyd has gone as far as the Alps rather than stopping in the Po watershed as we might have expected. We have noticed that the Po watershed appears to be a bit less important this year, with a few Cuckoos spending time just outside it - could conditions there be less suitable this year for some reason?

From his position close to Marseille, Lloyd has crossed over to the west coast of Italy. A transmission this morning showed him 418km (260 miles) from his previous location, and locates him south-east of the city of Pisa, close to the communes of Pecioli and Lajatico.