Updates from our Cuckoos

Since arriving back on the Knepp Estate in late April, Knepp has been faithful to the site. During the last week or so he has been spending a lot of his time close to the village of Whitehall. Knepp was the first of our satellite tagged Cuckoos to arrive back in the UK on 25 April, in the past a few of our Cuckoos have headed back to Africa during the first week of June. Might Knepp be one of these? Watch this space.

Since arriving back at Carlton Marshes, Suffolk, during the first week of May, Carlton II seems to have been spending most of his time a little further to the west, just to the north of Haddiscoe Marshes and Thorpe. Currently he is further north still, frequenting the area between the rivers Yare and Waveney, close to Burgh Castle.

Finally at 20:59 last night we received an update showing that Raymond had flown the final 198 miles from northern France back across the Channel to the Knepp Estate in Sussex. All three birds tagged at Knepp last year have now successfully completed their migrations to Africa and back again.

Sussex Cuckoos Knepp and Raymond have already made it back to the Knepp Estate where they were tagged last year. Arriving fashionably late to the party, we hope, will be the third Sussex Cuckoo, Raymond. Also tagged on the Knepp Estate, Raymond spent the winter in Congo, approximately 750 Km (466 miles) north of Lambert and Knepp. Since crossing the Sahara Raymond has been making steady progress north. Over the last few days he has flown 555 Km (345 miles) north east from La Higuera in the province of Avila, Castile & Leon in Spain and is now near Lencouacq in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in south-western France. He now has just 766 Km (476 miles) of his 14,000 Km (8,700 miles) journey to go until he is also back at Knepp.

An update received from Lambert's tag at 04:50 this morning showed that Lambert had succesfully covered the remaining 498 Km (309 miles) from his last location near Mazieres-en-Gatine in west central France to his breeding grounds in Sussex. Lambert is one of three Cuckoos tagged on the Knepp Estate.

We last heard from Victor on April 10 when he had just completed his desert crossing and was near the Algerian oasis town of Mansourah, at the northern edge of the Sahara. Based on the data we have received we can't be sure whether Victor has perished or it is his tag that has failed. The project will benefit greatly from the data contributed by Victor since he was first tagged in 2016 and we are grateful to everyone that sponsored and supported him. 

We last heard from Bowie's tag when he was near the Algerian town of Hammam Righa on the Oued Djer River. On examining the data it looks like Bowie was struggling in the latter part of his northward desert crossing and spent at least six hours on the desert floor on the morning of 11 April. The temperature data recorded by his tag suggest he died on 13 April, soon after his arrival at the final location.  Bowie has gien us useful information about his southward migration, wintering areas and northwards migration as far as north Africa, all of which helps extend our knowledge of Cuckoo migration. We are grateful to all of Bowie's sponsors and supporters. 

Raymond has been making steady progress north since crossing the Sahara. In the last few days he crossed into Spain, stopping briefly near Puebla de Don Rodrigo, a municipality in Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha. He has since flown a further 130 Km (80 miles) north to his current location 117 Km (73 miles) west of Madrid, near La Higuera in the province of Avila, Castile & Leon in Spain. Raymond has another 1,250 Km (777 miles) to fly before he reaches the Knepp Estate where he was tagged. 

Carlton II completed his return migration in the last few days, covering the 1,180 Km (733 miles) from northern Spain to Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Carlton Marshes Nature Reserve near Lowestoft.

In our last update we reported that Thomas was all at sea, 155 km (96 miles) west of the Saint-Pierre Light in Penmarch on the coast of Brittany in fact. Well, a short time later Thomas' tag transmitted again showing that he had covered the remaining 719 Km (447 miles) back to his tagging location in Thetford Forest, much to our relief.