Updates from our Cuckoos

Since the 30 July, Whortle has flown 135km (83 miles) south within Spain, leaving the area he had been in for two weeks, and is now close to Linares de Mora in Teruel. Could he be getting ready to continue to Africa soon?

On 23 July, Whortle revealed which route he had chosen to follow by heading from his location in France to Spain. He is the second of our Devon Cuckoos to take this route  This is really interesting as before this, only East Anglian birds had been found to take this route. The other two Devon Cuckoos, Dart and Tor, have visited the islands Mallorca and Corsica on their way south. 

Whortle has now been in the area of the southern French Alps for four days and is 5km (3.5 miles) north-west of Meailles. He is 24km (14 miles) west of David (one of the Welsh Cuckoos from 2012). These two birds were only 9.5km (6 miles) apart at their brief stopover point in northern Italy. It will be interesting to see where they both go from here.

Whortle looks like he ventured in to the Po Valley in Italy in the early hours of 4 July, travelling 85km (53 miles) in a north-easterly direction from his location in the corner of France. A series of transmissions show him moving around the area near Piampaludo over several hours but two days later he was retracing his steps and returned back to his last location in France. Perhaps he was unable to find a good source of food and so retreated back to the last good feeding site? 

On the evening of 26 June another of our Devon Cuckoos made his move, having been in Devon in the late evening, just 48 hours later he had travelled 1030km ( 640 miles) to the south-east of France, transmitting his location from there on the evening of 28 June! He appeared to be in hilly landscape close to the communes of Le Beaucet and Venasque in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Further signals received yesterday evening show that he continued onwards a further 206km (128 miles) and is now close to the Italian border, in the extreme south-east corner of France, to the east of Tende in the Mercantour National Park within the Maritime Alps. This makes him the seventh tagged Cuckoo to depart the UK. He is the third of the Devon Cuckoos to leave - all are currently in France but they are currently in very different areas, with Tor in the north-east and Ryder in the north-west.

Whortle was caught very early on the 14 May at Cold East Cross, between Widdecombe-in-the-Moor and Ashburton, East Dartmoor, and was filmed by BBC Inside Out SW (due to be shown in September). He has spent most of his time since being tagged in the same area and the latest locations received this morning (12 June) place him very close to where he was trapped.