Updates from our Cuckoos

During the early morning of 21 June we received a couple of locations from David's tag that showed he was on his way back to Africa. Despite having to dodge some pretty heavy rainfall, he headed down to the New Forest, Hampshire and probably left the UK via the Isle of Wight. He is currently in northern France just south west of Dreux, and 526km (326 miles) south east of his breeding site atTregaron.

On the 20th May we received a report from a member of the public who had just found a bird's foot in Thetford Forest, Norfolk, that was carrying a metal ring. It was thought that the foot, being yellow, might belong to a small bird of prey. A search of the BTO ringing database showed that it belonged to Stanley. Whilst we will never know for sure what happened to him, we suspect that he fell victim to a predator of some sort.

Since arriving in the area just east of Kendal, Peckham has remained settled here. During the late evening on 15 June he was 8km (5 miles) southeast of Kendal, and just north of Killington Reservoir and Lily Mere.

Since arriving here on 4 May, Larry has remained in the area just north of Stocks Reservoir, very close to the location at which he was tagged on 3 June 2015.

Around breakfast time on 15 June, a location received from Disco Tony showed that he had left Wales and was on his way to Africa.The location put him in Hampshire, 2km (1.2 miles) north of Standon, just west of Winchester. It is good to see him at the very start of his long journey south.

With the summer nearing its end for our Cuckoos, in the past five years several of our tagged Cuckoos have left the UK during early June, it is good to see that David is still moving around the area close to Tregaron and his tagging site. Around mid-morning on 14 June he was 3.25km (2 miles) northwest of Garthynty.

When we last heard from Coo on 3 May, everything seemed OK with him. He had arrived back on his breeding grounds and was moving around quite widely. The information from his tag was also indicating that everything was fine but then everything stopped and we have received nothing since. Of course we don't really know what happened but with the failure being so catastrophic and sudden we have to consider that Coo has been predated.

Two locations received from Disco Tony's tag at dusk on the 8 May showed that he was back in Wales and was in an area of woodland just to the south of Devil's Bridge.

Since our last update we've received a new transmission from Disco Tony's tag placing him in Northern Spain. He has travelled 350 miles north and his now between Santander and Gijon in the north of Spain. 

Larry only stayed in Norfolk for a very brief visit before setting off again and by the early hours of the 4th May, Larry was back in the Forest of Bowland. He left there on the 26th June last year so we expect him to stay in this area for the next six to eight weeks.