Updates from our Cuckoos

After a brief stop in the south of France, PJ has pressed on north, crossing the Channel and arriving in England this morning. By 3pm he was just north of Chichester and by early evening he had settled near the village of Treyford in the South Downs. Last year PJ arrived back in England on 26th April. We have now tracked PJ over four complete migrations between England and Africa.  

Since our last update Carlton II has continued to enjoy the quiet of the parks and golf clubs of Berkshire, moving north east towards Slough. The latest updates show him briefly visiting Stoke Park Golf Club near Farnham Royal before moving on to Burnham Beeches Golf Club in Burnham. Perhaps his next stop will be at the Buckinghamshire or Harefield Place Golf Clubs just north of Uxbridge?  

We've had several more updates from Senan now, all showing him in the Tlemcen province of north-western Algeria, close to the border with Morocco. He is currently approximately 10 km (6.25 miles) south west of the town of Sidi Djillali.

Since our last update, PJ has pressed on, crossing the Pyrenees into southern France. His last known location was just north of the town of Mimizan in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in south-western France. When we receive our next update will PJ still be in France or might he already be back in England? Stay tuned to find out!

We last heard from Tennyson on 6th April when he was in south-eastern Guinea, close to the border with Ivory Coast. With Carlton II already back in England and the others on their way, we hope that we'll also hear that Tennyson is making progress north very soon. 

We have now received more updates from Valentine's tag which show that his final destination after crossing the Sahara was Tunisia. He is currently 21 km (13 miles) east of the ancient city of El Kef in north western Tunisia. 

It looks as if Valentine has completed his desert crossing as an update from his tag placed him in northern Morocco at 4am this morning. His journey over the Sahara took him from Ivory Coast, over Burkina Faso, Mali and Algeria to his current location. We have only received low quality locations from Valentine so will have to await further updates before being sure of his exact route and location.  

PJ has switched to a slower mode of migration since arriving in Spain but he is continuing to move north. By late last night he had flown 160 km (100 miles) north east from his last location, and was enjoying Sierra del Rincon, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve outside Madrid. The most recent update from PJ's tag place him in a river valley between La Hiruela and Puebla de la Sierra. 

Carlton II didn't stop long in France, by 10:20 yesterday morning he had arrived back in England, making him the first of our tagged Cuckoos to arrive back. It looks as if he was enjoying the lockdown quiet in the parks of South London as the data place him close to the Dulwich and Sydenham Hill Golf Club. He then headed west and the last location we received from him last night showed him in Berkshire. If you heard a Cuckoo in the vicinity of Shurlock Row in Berkshire last night, it could well have been Carlton II! 

After many weeks of radio silence we finally received an update from Senan's tag on Friday 16th April, showing him approaching the foot of Italy. However further updates since show him in Egypt, Tunisia and, most recently, north-western Algeria. All but one of the signals have been of low quality and, despite all of the solar charging it will have received during the desert crossing, the tag's battery is very low on charge. Unfortunately this means that although Senan is likely to be migrating as expected, his tag is giving up the ghost and we are on the verge of losing contact with him. We will of course continue to monitor the data closely and will update you if we do receive any further transmissions from Senan's tag.