Updates from our Cuckoos

Having been close to Montpellier on 12 July, Lyster was next picked up on the Spanish-French border 15km (9 miles) east of Andorra in the evening of 14 July. Unconfirmed locations (that won’t show on the map) suggested he had continued migrating that night and by the end of the night he was 70km (43 miles) WSW from here in north-eastern Spain. This is confirmation that Lyster is taking the westerly route into Africa through Iberia, as he did last year.

From his position close to Marseille, Lloyd has crossed over to the west coast of Italy. A transmission this morning showed him 418km (260 miles) from his previous location, and locates him south-east of the city of Pisa, close to the communes of Pecioli and Lajatico.

We didn't receive any confirmed locations from the Champagne-Ardenne region, so these points won't show on the map, however, Lyster isn't hanging around and has continued onwards. We have received transmissions from the south coast of France showing that he is currently 21km (13 miles) south of Montpellier. This now makes him one of the most southerly Cuckoos.

After spending a month at her tagging location in Brechfa Forest, Idemili followed her male colleagues and moved eastwards to Surrey. She was in Wales on the evening of the 9th July and we next heard from her in Surrey on the morning of the 11 July.

We thought all was well but received a phone call today (13 July) from the Wildlife Aid Foundation in Leatherhead to say she had been picked up yesterday (12 July) in a garden in Tolworth, Surrey. She was underweight and had some wounds to her wing and some feathers were missing from her head indicating she had been attacked by another bird.

She survived the night and is taking mealworms, crickets and water so there is hope that she will recover. Whilst the bird hospital have confirmed that she shows no evidence of damage from the tag, Dr Chris Hewson, lead scientist on the project at the BTO, will visit Idemili tomorrow (14 July) to remove her tag while she recuperates, and to assess her physical condition. She is in excellent hands at the hospital and we will be keeping a close eye on her as she recovers.

To find out more about the Wildlife Aid Foundation, or to support their work, take a look at their website here.

We are really excited to be following a female British Cuckoo for the first time. It might seem strange that we have only tagged one female Cuckoo but this has been more by circumstance than design. The aim of BTO scientists was always to catch and fit satellite tags on five female birds this year, with a view to determining whether or not the migration of female birds differs from that of male cuckoos. However, females have proved surprisingly difficult to catch this spring, a combination of the seemingly late arrival in some areas (when the Scottish males were being tagged not a single female was heard) and the unusually wet and windy weather didn't help with the task.

115589 is the last English Cuckoo to receive a name. He has been named John in memory of the late John Tully who was a long-standing BTO Member, Regional Organiser (Avon), Chair of our Regional Network Committee and superb ornithologist.

Roy has travelled 1080km (that's around 670 miles) to reach Germany! His last tag transmission was on the 8 July from North York Moors National Park but by the evening of the 10 July he was close to the town of Regensburg in the south-west of Germany.  This means Wallace is the last Scottish Cuckoo to leave, and with good reason to believe Lyster has left too, he becomes the last of all our male Cuckoos to leave the UK.   

On the afternoon of the 7 July we received a transmission from England. Then early yesterday morning (10 July) we received a series of locations with uncertain accuracy all placing him in the Champagne-Ardenne region 25km (15 miles) north of Troyes.

These new points won't show on the map yet, but should update over the next few days as we receive further transmissions to verify the uncertain locations from this morning. The distance between his last location in England and this new location was 490km (303 miles). This means that all our English Cuckoos are now on their way south!

Our last remaining un-named Cuckoo has finally received a name. 115597 will now be known as Lloyd. He has been named after John Lloyd, a long-standing BTO Regional Representative and our Honorary Wales Officer. In Welsh Lloyd becomes Llwyd and means 'grey', the colour of male Cuckoos

Our last Scottish Cuckoo has been given a name. 115593 will now be known as Roy after Rob Roy (Robert Roy MacGregor), Scotland's own version of Robin Hood. Rob Roy was born at Glengyle, at the head of Loch Katrine where the Cuckoos were tagged, in what is now Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.