Just PJ and Carlton II are yet to leave the UK. Three more Cuckoos have recently started on their migration, meaning a total of nine Cuckoos have departed this year already.

New signals received on 29 June show Nussey had journeyed south-west 275km (172 miles) within France and was just south-east of Nantes near the commune of Cholet. He continued a further 335km (210 miles) down the west coast and by 1 July was close to Morcenx, about 30km (20 miles) inland.  Poor quality signals received after this indicate he carried on and is heading  towards the Spanish border.

Valentine completed his crossing of the English Channel and was 50km (30 miles) south of Paris by the evening of 25 June, 340km (210 miles) from his last location near Canterbury.  Since then he’s been roving around the area between Blandy and Maisse. 

During the late afternoon of 30 June we received transmissions showing that Senan had left the UK and completed his crossing of the English Channel.  Locations revealed that he was in northern France,  just south of Wierre-Effroy and around 10km (6 miles) inland from the west coast, 190km (116 miles) from Norfolk. Further locations yesterday show that he is now 790km (490 miles) further south, near Marmande, to the south-east of Bordeaux.

Larry has made a huge movement south and is already in Croatia, where he has stopped over in previous years. Looking back over his journeys, this is pretty much on schedule. Transmissions on the morning of 30 June show him over the sea, off the west coast of Rijeka. His last transmission from the UK was around lunchtime on 25 June meaning he covered over 1385 km (860 miles) in about 4 and a half days. He could be heading towards the island of Cres, where he has spent time in previous years, before then heading south into Italy later in July, and then embarking on his desert crossing over Libya to Chad in August. 

Poor quality signals on lunchtime of the 25 June indicate that Larry had moved south and was north-west of Peterborough. We were expecting to see further transmissions today which might show some movements but nothing has been received as yet. We hope to receive something in the next couple of days which reveals his new location.

We’re delighted to introduce some new faces to the project! Catching the birds has been challenging this year with seemingly less competition for females and so less interest in the female lure used, but thanks to the persistence of our super tagging team, we do have four new male Cuckoos to introduce to you.

Three of these newly-tagged birds are already on the way, crossing the Channel and moving into France within the last few days. Take a look at the individual blogs to find out more.

One of two birds tagged on the BTO reserve in early June, Valentine has also set off on his southward migration. By the early evening of 23 June, Valentine was northeast of Canterbury. A couple of further poor quality transmissions indicate he carried on and embarked on crossing the English channel, just south of Folkestone, but we will have to wait for the next cycle of transmissions later today to reveal how far south he has travelled. He is the 7th of our tagged Cuckoos to start their migration. 

We didn’t have to wait long to find out as, by the 20 June, Thetford Cuckoo Thomas was on his way south! Late that evening he was flying over the English Channel, at least 110 Km (65 miles) from his tagging location. The next set of transmissions on 22 June, show he had journeyed another 695km (430 miles) and was located north of Auvergne in the Livradois-Forez Regional Nature Park. Not yet finished he appears to have continued southwards and by the 23 June he was close to Ales.  All-in-all he had taken a huge trip of 950km (590 miles) since the evening of the 20 June.

Nussey, tagged at the end of May, was the first of the 2019 Cuckoos to leave the country, transmitting from northern France on 11 June. He has spent the last two weeks in the area of Brionne, 55km (35 miles) southeast of the port of La Havre.