Updates from our Cuckoos

Updates received from Lambert's tag late yesterday afternoon show that he has flown 400 Km (249 miles) north from his last location in southern Spain to the La Rioja province of northern Spain, near the González-Lacasa Reservoir. 

He's had us holding our breath waiting to see if he was going to make his move north and finally Sussex Cuckoo Raymond has crossed the Sahara. At 19:23 on April 29, Raymond was still south of the Sahara, in west central Ivory Coast. By 16:27 yesterday (May 1) he was in the middle of his desert crossing and had reached northern Mauritania. By 3:03 this morning (May 2) he was over the Middle Atlas mountain range in Morocco and by 08:35 he had reached his destination, 30 Km (19 miles) from the north coast of Morocco, near the commune of Iferni. This means that over the last 57 hours, Raymond has covered 3,031 Km (1,883 miles) at an average speed of 33 mph, crossing some of the most inhospitable places on earth. He now has "just" another 1,811 Km (1,125 miles) to go before he arrives back at his breeding grounds on the Knepp Estate. 

An update received from Lambert's tag this morning shows that he has crossed from northern Algeria into southern Spain. He is currently on the northern edge of the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park, the largest protected area in Spain. Lambert has another 1,380 Km (857 miles) to go before he can join fellow Cuckoo Knepp back on the Knepp Estate in Sussex where he was tagged. 

Thomas is making steady progress towards home having flown another 280 Km (173 miles) north west from his last location near Monesterio in the south of Extremadura to his new location in central Portugal. He is in the eastern part of the Serra de Estrela Natural Park.

We last heard from Larry on April 14 when he was in northern Algeria. An update received from Larry’s tag at 05:48 Sunday morning (28 April) showed that he had covered 2,035 Km (1,264 miles) and is now back at his breeding grounds in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire. Larry was tagged here in June 2015 so his successful return means he has now completed four full migration loops from Lancashire to his wintering grounds in Angola and back again. In completing each of his loops he covered approximately 16,000 Km (9,940 miles) so we have followed him over at least 64,000 Km (39,770 miles) – what a bird!

We are sorry to report sad news about Selborne. We last heard from Selborne at midday on 4 April when he had just arrived in Spain and it now looks as if he died later that day or overnight. His last location shows him over a southern ridge of the Sierra Morena mountains where it appears that he was stopped suddenly in his tracks as he topped that slope. We will probably never know what happened to Selborne but it would appear most likely that he was either taken by an avian predator or succumbed to human hunters. Selborne was named by the Hampshire Ornithological Society when he was tagged in June 2016. Since then we have followed Selborne over two complete migration loops from Hampshire to his wintering grounds in Gabon. He was only 1,430 Km (888 miles) from completing his third migration loop. We are grateful to the Hampshire Ornithological Society and all of Selborne's sponsors for enabling the wonderful contribution that Selborne has made to advancing our understanding of Cuckoo migration.

When we last heard from Robinson, he was in southern France, near the town of Labatie d'Andaure. At 21:07 last night we received an update from his tag that showed he had covered the remaining 1,000 Km (622 miles) of his return journey and he is now in the area he was tagged, near Budby in Nottinghamshire.

PJ completed the final leg of 645 Km (400 miles) of his return journey at 15:30 yesterday afternoon and is now back in the King's Forest in Suffolk. PJ was tagged in June 2016 so his successful return this year means that we have now tracked him over three complete migration loops from his breeding grounds near Thetford to his wintering grounds in Angola and back again. In previous years PJ has departed between June 23 and July 2 so we expect him to stay with us for around 9 weeks.

The latest updates from Carlton II's tag received at 08:00 this morning show that he has progressed north into west central Spain. He is now in Extremadura, near the small town of Torremenga.

Updates received early this morning brought the news that the first of our satellite-tagged Cuckoos had made it back to the UK. Cuckoo Knepp, tagged on the Knepp Estate in Sussex last May is back in Sussex! We last heard from Knepp on April 17 when he was on the northern edge of the Atlas mountains in eastern Morocco. He was in the northern Sahara, near the oasis settlement of Ain Bni Mathar. Since then he has flown 1,880 Km (1,170 miles) north to reach his breeding grounds on the Knepp Estate. We hope that this is the first complete migration loop of many which we will follow Knepp on.