Updates from our Cuckoos

Daniel has finally departed his breeding grounds at Lake Vyrnwy and flown 217km (135 miles) south east to the fine county of Bedfordshire. He spent a couple of hours Tuesday evening in and around the village of Marston Moreteyne - did anyone see or hear him? By 10pm on Tuesday evening he was near Langford, just south of Biggleswade. It'll be interesting to see where he travels to next. 

New updates received at around 6am this morning show that Charles has flown 550km (343 miles) south from his last location in northern Algeria, into the Sahara. By 8am this morning he had reached Timimoun Province in south central Algeria. He was 37km north of the town of Talmine, the first of a string of oasis towns leading south towards the provincial capital, Adrar. The average daily high in this area in June is a blistering 42.2 degrees C (108 degrees F), and average precipitation is 0mm. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed that Charles has enough in the tank to power him through the next 1,500km or so to the other side of the desert. 

Update: By 11:42 this morning, Charles had flown a further 120km south and was passing just east of the town of Metarfa in Aougrout District, Adrar Province. He is currently flying into a light headwind but as he moves south he should pick up a tailwind which will assist him on his way south over southern Algeria and Mali. 

Having spent the last week or so visiting the Llanymynech area, Daniel has flown the 29km (18 miles) west, back to his breeding grounds on the southern shore of Lake Vyrnwy. Perhaps he was struggling to find a good enough food supply and so returned to an area that he was familiar with and could be more confident would hold the food supply that he needs. 

By early Saturday evening Charles had flown 357km (222 miles) south from his last location and had reached the town of Tourbes in the Occitanie region of southern France. Subsequent signals showed him pushing on south and the last update, received at 22:12 on Saturday night showed him nearing Riversaltes, just to the north of Perpignan. If he keeps going he could well overtake JD as our most southerly Cuckoo.  

After making landfall on the Dutch coast just south of Rotterdam, Ellis took to the skies again over the weekend, flying 204km (127 miles) north east to Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. He is now on some farmland just north of the city of Leeuwarden, an area that looks as if it could offer some very good feeding opportunities for a Cuckoo. 

JD has flown 43km (27 miles) north east from his last location in the hills above Zuera in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon in north eastern Spain to a new location on some farmland 6km north west of the city of Huesca in Aragon. 

After what appears to be quite a long sea crossing, Ellis made landfall last night in the Netherlands. By 9pm he was on the De Kwade Hoek Nature Reserve - translated as "Evil Corner" due to the treacherous currents and sandbanks in this area. The reserve is part of the larger Dunes of Goeree nature reserve on Goeree-Overflakkee in South Holland - he has picked a beautiful spot to stop! Ellis also stopped off in the Netherlands on his way south last year albeit a little further north than his current location. In 2021 he remained in the Netherlands until 4 July when he moved swiftly south through Germany and Italy, arriving in Libya by 8 July and sub-saharan Niger by 10 July. 

Since our last update JAC has reached Havant on the south coast of England. The last transmission showed him between Nevill's Park and the Fat Face distribution centre. We are due another transmission soon, will he still be touring Havant or will he be in France? Last year he arrived in northern France on 24 June and remained here for approximately a month.

Victor II has flown 338km (210 miles) south from his last location in the Pas-de-Callais department of northern France to a forest outside Dampierre-en-Burly in the Loiret department of northern central France. Last year he flew straight from northern France to the French Riviera but didn't make this journey until 18th July.  

New updates received at around lunchtime today show that JD has crossed the Pyrenees and is now in northern Spain. He is in the Castejón Mountains in the Cinco Villas comarca, Aragon, Spain, approximately 30 km (19 mi) north of Zaragoza.