Updates from our Cuckoos

All three Devon birds tagged in 2014 (Emsworthy, Meavy and Wistman) were caught between 04:30 and 08:30 on May 15th at Emsworthy, a Devon Wildlife Trust reserve on the eastern edge of Dartmoor, along with one female cuckoo. Nets were set around an isolated Hawthorn bush on the upper valley slopes. A fifth cuckoo escaped from the net that morning.

The first of three Cuckoos taggged in Sherwood Forest, 134952 was caught flying between young alders near Shirebrook, after having failed to catch three cuckoos flying over our nets at Budby Common earlier that morning. The second two birds, 134955 and 134957 were trapped at Sherwood Pines the following morning, the second bird flying into the nets just as we released the first!

In the last few days we have been receiving signals from Tor's tag - surprising us as we last heard from him just north of the Congo Rainforest in March! These new signals show he made it to Morocco but unfortunately it does look like, despite successfully completing the crossing of the Sahara desert, he has since died there. This shows that tag failure was responsible for his initial silences but unfortunately it looks like the desert crossing was too much for him and he didn't have the reserves to continue onwards. 

By the evening of 13 May David was back in Wales! He left his last location in France sometime after the 9 May, making the 660km (410 miles) journey back to Tregaron, the area in which he was first tagged.

Last year, in spring 2013, he first returned to the UK much earlier, around 26 April but promptly turned tail and returned to France - no doubt  influenced by the cool daytime weather and falling evening temperatures at Sherborne, and by the general lack of advancement of the spring due to the unseasonably cold weather earlier on in March and April.  Having spent a few weeks there, he was back in the UK by the 6 May and at his tagging site by 9 May. 

It's interesting that despite much warmer daytime temperatures in the last few weeks, David has chosen to leave it even later than last year. Perhaps using his previous experience to ensure that he doesn't make the same mistake again. This choice however may mean that he finds it harder to find a mate, as other Cuckoos who have arrived earlier will have taken the best territories.  

Patch hadn't moved on northwards from his location in Spain like the other Cuckoos so our scientists took a look at the signals received recently. While we have been receiving signals, a closer look revealed that they were all lower quality signals, indicating that the tag may be on the ground. In addition the temperature associated with each transmission is now fluctuating with the external temperature, rather than remaining steadily at body temperature - as you would expect if the tag was still attached to a live Cuckoo. Together these two bits of information seem to suggest that we have lost Patch in Spain and he will sadly not be returning to his tagging ground in Scotland.

During the early morning of 4 May Derek transmitted from Basingstoke, Hampshire. He is back in the UK! By mid-morning he was back in East Anglia and heading for the Norfolk Broads, his tagging site. At 13.30 he had done it, he was back in the Broads - the end of an epic migration from the Congo Rainforest.

By the early hours of 3 May Livingstone had made it to Brittany, France. Approximately 30 hours later and he was flying over Wales, leaving land close to Colwyn Bay and cutting across the Irish Sea and travelling north to the Isle of Lismore. A further 50 miles travelling northwards and he had returned to his tagging grounds, in the smaller lochs south of Locah Carron. 

Both Waller and Livingstone returned to Scotland from western France but took surprisingly different routes to return, with Livingstone sticking to Wales and the west while Waller headed east to Berwickshire and then cut back across to western Scotland. We are delighted to welcome back two more Cuckoos! 

By the very early hours of 4 May Waller was back in Scotland, just inside the border near Duns, Berwickshire. He had cut across the UK from the Channel Islands to the south-west, right across to the eastern Scottish coast and travelled 650km (400 miles). From here he followed the coast to a location near Edinburgh, before heading west to Oban by the afternoon of 5 May.

By 6 May he was in the area of Fort William and flying over the area near Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles. He is close to Loch Eli and has yet to return to his tagging grounds, which are about 70km (50 miles) further north. 

By the 27 April, David had travelled to Spain and was just north of the Sierra Nevada Mountains having travelled 460km (285 miles) from his last location in Morocco.

It looks likely that either Ken has perished in Ivory Coast or the tag is no longer attached. The tag temperature is now fluctuating with the day and night time temperatures, rather than remaining consistant with body temperature as it should. It looks like we will not be following Ken across the desert and back to the UK.