Updates from our Cuckoos

Henry left the Montrose area rather swiftly, and headed straight down into north-east England. From here he continued on to West Sussex, in a journey covering around 680 km (422 miles).   

He is currently just 8 km (5 miles) west of London Gatwick Airport.

The first of our 2024-tagged Scottish Cuckoos has made a move!

Henry has left his summer Highland residency in Ross and Cromarty, and has flown over 200 km (124 miles) south-east to the North Sea coast.

Currently just north of Montrose, it will be interesting to see where he heads from here – will he follow the coastline down through Edinburgh and into the Borders or will he head due south over open water, past the outer Firth of Forth, into north-east England?

KP, the last of our tagged Irish Cuckoos has set off!

He left Ireland on 27 June, passing the South Wales coast before cutting speedily across southern England and crossing the Channel at Kent, before stopping just south of Lille, near the Belgian border - a journey of 936 km (580 miles).

After a brief respite, he set off south-east and covered another 808 km (502 miles), passing the French city of Nancy. KP then cut across south-west Germany and western Austria, before arriving on the shores of Lake Reschen, in northern Italy’s Tyrolean mountains on 29 June!

Cuach Cores appears to have reoriented slightly from his last location in south-eastern France, and has now headed up to an area just north of the Italian city of Turin.

He has been following the River Po, Italy’s longest river; if he continues on this route it will take him eastwards, toward the Adriatic.

Since our last update on 27 June, Sayaan has moved a little way in recent days.

Moving approximately 116 km (72 miles) to the east, he is now in the lush rolling hills of the Province of Parma in the Italian region, Emilia-Romagna.

Cleeve is still in north-east Spain, having flown just over 100 km (62 miles) from his last location just south of Andorra.

He is currently in Huesca province in the Pre-Pyrenees, approximately 40 km (24 miles) north of the city of Lleida.

Cleeve seems to be wasting little time, and since our last update just four days ago, he has flown a remarkable 975 km, (605 miles) from northern France down to the Pyrenees. 

He is now just over the border into Spain, approximately 18 km (11 miles) south-east of Andorra, and close to Cadí-Moixeró Natural Park, in the north of Catalonia.

Earlier this week Cuach Torc crossed the border into Italy from Switzerland.

He stopped for a short while just north of the UNESCO world heritage city of Verona, famously the home of Romeo and Juliet. From here Torc then moved a further 120 km (75 miles) to the coast just south of Venice.

In the next few days he could either continue down through Italy, or follow the route he did last year, via Bosnia and Herzegovina and on into Greece! 

Since leaving the Dijon area in western France a few days ago, Sayaan has flown some 463 km (287 miles), skirting Switzerland, and crossing into Italy just to the west of Turin.

He is now in the Piedmont region, just north of Genoa, from where his next move should see him heading south through Italy and on towards the Mediterranean.

Over the weekend, Cleeve left the Cranwich Heath area in Norfolk, and headed south.

A 306 km (190 miles) overnight flight took him to the Essex coast, where he then continued across the Channel to Dunkirk. From here he flew south-east, into northern France and is currently just to the east of the city of Arras.

Cleeve was filmed by a BBC TV crew when tagged on 10 May 2024, and was the star, alongside Hannah Stitfall, of a One Show feature about the BTO Cuckoo project!