Updates from our Cuckoos

On the morning of 30 June, Nick’s tag beamed transmissions from a new location in France, having travelled 490km (305 miles) from his previous position just south of Wicken Fen. He was in the Pays de la Lore region, and was close to Parcé-sur-Sarthe, roughly 35 km ( 22 miles) south-west from Le Mans, host to the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race. Signals later that morning show him in the area of Avoise, through which the Sarthe river flows. He is the eighth tagged Cuckoo to leave the UK. 

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.

On 25 June Livingstone was close to the south coast of England but signals received late on Friday evening (28 June) revealed he had left the country and was in central France.  Locations placed him in the valley of around 8km (5 miles) north of Roanne, in the Loire department. He appears to be in a wooded area close to the Loire River which runs through Roanne. He is the sixth tagged Cuckoo to leave the UK and the second Scottish Cuckoo, following behind BB. Signals received yesterday (1 July) confirm he is still in the same area. 

The latest transmissions received yesterday evening (27 June) show that BB has left Germany and is now in north-east Italy.  He is near Valvasone, a comune in the Province of Pordenone in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia. This new location is 330k (200 miles) from his last position in Bavaria. 

Positions received at lunch time on 27 June show that Sussex is now in Sardinia, a few km north-east of Tonara. Due to the absence of good quality signals since his last position in France, we are unable to tell whether Sussex made land in Italy, or whether that poor quality signal was a mirror signal and his route took him straight to Sardinia, from where he is now transmitting. 

Sussex has indeed continued rapidly south moving on from his position in the Hautes-Alpes - as poor quality signals indicated - and  heading towards the coast. From here he flew across the sea to the coast of Italy! This location won’t show on the map until better quality transmissions are received. This journey has been around 430 km (265 miles) and he is now close to Follonica, in the Province of Grosseto, (185 km ) 115 miles north-west of Rome.  Since his first transmission outside of the UK, the journey through France and over to the west coast of Italy has taken a week. 

At a similar time as Ryder transmitted from France, in the early hours of 25 June, Tor also revealed his new location!  Although on a similar longitude, he was over 340km (200 miles) further to the east in the region of Lorraine, close to the commune of Arraincourt to the west of the Vosgues Mountains. He is just 30km (19 miles) south-west of the border with Germany.  Since the last position received in England he has covered around 770km (475 miles)!

Unlike the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland last year, which flew straight across the sea to Europe, Livingstone, has moved south, heading down the west of the country and then taking a south-easterly direction from the Irish Sea to cut across England to the south coast. Transmissions just before lunch on 25 June show he was just north of Waterlooville in Hampshire but a later signal shows he has crossed over the border to West Sussex and is now between South Harting and Rogate. Interestingly, Karma, another of the Cuckoos tagged in the same area of Scotland this year, has chosen another tactic, instead moving eastwards to Aberdeen. Will he fly to Europe across the sea or skirt down the east coast in a similar fashion? 

On the evening of 22 June, we received one transmission showing that Ryder was just west of Holne. The next signal, early in the morning of 25 June shows he had arrived on the coast of Brittany and Lower Normandy, about 30km (19 miles) east of Saint-Malo and 50km (30 miles) north of Rennes, after completing a distance of 270km (169 miles) including crossing the English Channel at one of its widest points.