Updates from our Cuckoos

By the evening of 13 May David was back in Wales! He left his last location in France sometime after the 9 May, making the 660km (410 miles) journey back to Tregaron, the area in which he was first tagged.

Last year, in spring 2013, he first returned to the UK much earlier, around 26 April but promptly turned tail and returned to France - no doubt  influenced by the cool daytime weather and falling evening temperatures at Sherborne, and by the general lack of advancement of the spring due to the unseasonably cold weather earlier on in March and April.  Having spent a few weeks there, he was back in the UK by the 6 May and at his tagging site by 9 May. 

It's interesting that despite much warmer daytime temperatures in the last few weeks, David has chosen to leave it even later than last year. Perhaps using his previous experience to ensure that he doesn't make the same mistake again. This choice however may mean that he finds it harder to find a mate, as other Cuckoos who have arrived earlier will have taken the best territories.  

Patch hadn't moved on northwards from his location in Spain like the other Cuckoos so our scientists took a look at the signals received recently. While we have been receiving signals, a closer look revealed that they were all lower quality signals, indicating that the tag may be on the ground. In addition the temperature associated with each transmission is now fluctuating with the external temperature, rather than remaining steadily at body temperature - as you would expect if the tag was still attached to a live Cuckoo. Together these two bits of information seem to suggest that we have lost Patch in Spain and he will sadly not be returning to his tagging ground in Scotland.

During the early morning of 4 May Derek transmitted from Basingstoke, Hampshire. He is back in the UK! By mid-morning he was back in East Anglia and heading for the Norfolk Broads, his tagging site. At 13.30 he had done it, he was back in the Broads - the end of an epic migration from the Congo Rainforest.

By the early hours of 3 May Livingstone had made it to Brittany, France. Approximately 30 hours later and he was flying over Wales, leaving land close to Colwyn Bay and cutting across the Irish Sea and travelling north to the Isle of Lismore. A further 50 miles travelling northwards and he had returned to his tagging grounds, in the smaller lochs south of Locah Carron. 

Both Waller and Livingstone returned to Scotland from western France but took surprisingly different routes to return, with Livingstone sticking to Wales and the west while Waller headed east to Berwickshire and then cut back across to western Scotland. We are delighted to welcome back two more Cuckoos! 

By the very early hours of 4 May Waller was back in Scotland, just inside the border near Duns, Berwickshire. He had cut across the UK from the Channel Islands to the south-west, right across to the eastern Scottish coast and travelled 650km (400 miles). From here he followed the coast to a location near Edinburgh, before heading west to Oban by the afternoon of 5 May.

By 6 May he was in the area of Fort William and flying over the area near Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles. He is close to Loch Eli and has yet to return to his tagging grounds, which are about 70km (50 miles) further north. 

By the 27 April, David had travelled to Spain and was just north of the Sierra Nevada Mountains having travelled 460km (285 miles) from his last location in Morocco.

It looks likely that either Ken has perished in Ivory Coast or the tag is no longer attached. The tag temperature is now fluctuating with the day and night time temperatures, rather than remaining consistant with body temperature as it should. It looks like we will not be following Ken across the desert and back to the UK. 

During the late evening of 24 April Whortle began moving north out of Portugal and when he next transmitted on 27 April at 07.00 and was in western France, north of La Rochelle.  By early evening on 29 April, he has travelled a further 330km (205 miles) and was in the north western tip of France on the Channel coast, close to Saint-Pol-de-Leon.  Today (2 May) at 03.26 the satellite picked him up back in the UK and on Dartmoor, 1.5km (1 mile) north east of Buckland in the Moor and 1km (.5 miles) from his 2013 tagging site.

During the evening of 27 April BB left the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain.  When he next transmitted on the evening of 29 April he was in northwest France, 48km (28 miles) southeast of St-Malo and 648km (400 miles) north of his last position in Spain. From the information received it looks like he took a direct flight across the Bay of Biscay. His next transmission at 03.26 on 2 May showed that he didn’t hang around in France as he was on the southern shore of Loch Katrine, Stirlingshire, the site at which he was tagged on 17th May 2012. He is now just over 6,000km (4,000 miles) from the Congo Rainforest and the area in which he spent the winter, and that he set out from three-and-a-half months ago.

Signals on 23 April show that Derek was crossing over the Mediterranean Sea. When the next cycle of tranmissions was sent on 26 he was in southern Spain, 230km (145 miles) south of Madrid. He has now moved northwards and is close to the border with France.