Updates from our Cuckoos

Hennah, Chester, Whortle and 134952 all transmitted from outside of the UK on 19 June. Whortle, one of the Devon birds tagged in 2013, hadn't even left the UK this time last year, having only transmitted from outside of the UK on 28 June in 2013.

Whortle, Chester and as yet un-named 134952 are the most recent Cuckoos confirmed to have left the UK. All three of these birds have travelled to north-western France, transmitting these updated locations on 19 June.   

Poor quality signals received on the same day indicate that two further Cuckoos have started their journeys. Hennah and Meavy look like they are in France too but until further locations are received to confirm this the maps won't update.

So we have at least 8 and possibly 10 Cuckoos which have left the UK. If the unconfirmed locations are true, then interestingly, all three Dartmoor birds (Emsworthy, Whortle and Meavy) and all three New Forest birds (Peter, Gilbert and Hennah) have left.  In addition one Scottish bird, 2 Nottinghamshire birds and one of the Sussex birds have also left the UK. 

During the late evening of 24 April Whortle began moving north out of Portugal and when he next transmitted on 27 April at 07.00 and was in western France, north of La Rochelle.  By early evening on 29 April, he has travelled a further 330km (205 miles) and was in the north western tip of France on the Channel coast, close to Saint-Pol-de-Leon.  Today (2 May) at 03.26 the satellite picked him up back in the UK and on Dartmoor, 1.5km (1 mile) north east of Buckland in the Moor and 1km (.5 miles) from his 2013 tagging site.

Whortle's tag sent signals from just inside the border of Portugal on 17 April, close to  Almeida, in the Guarda region which borders Spain. He has remained in this location since then. 

We hadn't received transmissions from Whortle's tag since 26 March so we were surprised to check the map this morning and find that Whortle had crossed the desert!  From Ivory Coast, he travelled 2400km (1490 miles) to Algeria, and were able to follow him heading north to Morocco through the night of 14 and early morning of 15 April. His last location was just north of Fez, close to Skinners Moroccan location.  

Signals received on 26 March show Whortle has left Cameroon and is now in Ivory Coast having completed a  journey of 2050km (1290 miles).  It’s not clear how long the journey took as we don’t know when he started moving west. His new location is just 6km (4 miles) from both Skinner and Chris’s locations. 

Whortle has continued north and has left Congo. He is now 645km (401 miles) north-west of Lake Mai and is currently in south-east Cameroon, in the Nki National Park. 

Since his 90km north-easterly movement from Lake Mai, Whortle has headed a further 76km (47 miles) in a north-westerly direction and is now 154km (96 miles) north of the lake, and just 10km from Mbandaka on the banks of the Congo River.

On the 24 December, locations show that Whortle had moved 90km (55 miles) north-east from his previous location near Lake Mai.

Patch stayed in his location near the lake until the 26 December but also moved away, in a north-westerly direction, of around 75km (47 miles). This movement took him close to the area which Waller had recently departed as he journeyed back to Congo. Will Patch follow Waller and move even further north?

David, Patch, Waller and Whortle are all still in the Democratic Republic of Congo and all the tags have transmitted within the last few weeks. Patch and Waller are still close to the shores of Lake Mai while Whortle is a little further north,  

David, our one remaining Welsh tagged Cuckoo, has gone the longest without transmitting, with the last signal received just over a week ago on 16 December. This year David is a little ahead of schedule, having spent Christmas further north in the swamp forests in 2012 and moving a few days after to the area he is now in, just north of the Salonga National Park and close to a tributary of the Congo River.