As suspected, David has moved on quickly from his position on the south coast and transmissions received early this morning show that he is back at Tregaron, the site where he was originally tagged. He is the only tagged male Welsh Cuckoo to have made it back. There are concerns for our other Welsh bird, Lloyd, who also wintered in the Democratic Republic of Congo as transmissions show he has not continued on from Morocco.
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David returns to his tagging site
09 May 2013
Chris leaves France for the UK
07 May 2013
On the evening of 1 May Chris left the Champagne-Ardenne Region, heading north-west through Picardy and by the early hours of 4 May Chris was back in the UK, at Lakenheath Warren just east of RAF Lakenheath. By the following afternoon he was back at Cavenham Heath, the area that he spent six weeks in last summer.
The two weeks Chris spent in France would have been plenty of time for him to have already have had some reproductive success this year. Although last year he spent the same period in Italy, we certainly don't believe his stay in France was a simple stop-over and think he would have been behaving as a breeding bird whilst there. It's possible either that he was 'programmed' to return to Britain around a certain date (last year it was 4 days earlier) and chanced his luck in France whilst biding his time, having been keen to push on from southern Europe earlier in April. It's also possible that, like David, he had already returned to Britain during his tag's 'off' period, around 14 April, but then quickly returned to France to wait for conditions to become more suitable. The fact that he moved south by about 130km (80 miles) from Belgium, before establishing himself near Mourmelon-le-Grand in Champagne-Ardennes region, may indicate this is what he's done.
Chance and BB close
07 May 2013
Just a few miles now separate Chance and BB, who are both in the area of Loch Katrine. The weather in Scotland has been less favourable than in the south but it is currently sunny and pleasant though wet conditions are forecast over the next few days.
David returns to the south coast
07 May 2013
David was still in the Centre region of France on 2 May but by the evening of 6 May he had covered 345km (215 miles) and was on the north coast of France, close to Cherbourg. Three hours later and he had covered around 114 km (71 miles) across the English Channel and was 40km (25 miles) south of Bournemouth. Shortly after this, further transmissions indicate he made landfall.
No movement from Morocco
03 May 2013
Lloyd remains at his previous location in the Fes-Boulamane province of Morocco. As the conditions in this area should be quite good at this time of year (there are areas of trees and irrigated farmland in the area) we are not unduly concerned about this. We have noted that the temperature of his tag is tracking the environmental temperature a little more closely than expected, which may be a sign that all is not well, but so far we haven’t seen anything that confirms this. We will have to wait and see how Lloyd fares….
BB back at Loch Katrine
02 May 2013
Signals received late last night, 1 May, reveal that BB has now joined Chance back at Loch Katrine, having completed the last 415km (260 miles) from the final location we received as he left his previous stopping place near Nottingham.
BB arrives in the UK
30 Apr 2013
BB is the second of our tagged Cuckoos to make it back to the UK, following fellow Scottish Cuckoo, Chance. From his position in the Centre Region of France on 27 April, BB has travelled 675km (420 miles), crossing the English Channel to arrive in the UK on April 29. Transmissions show that he was 10km (9 miles) south-east of Nottingham during the day but left to the north during the evening - according to the sensor data, he started his flight at about 2130hrs. It is a further 415km (258 miles) back to Loch Katrine so BB could be back there by the time his tag resumes transmissions late on Wednesday - being so close to his previous breeding location we would expect him to continue onwards fairly rapidly to arrive as early as possible. He may face competition for females from Chance who has a head start on him!
Chris remains in the Champagne-Ardenne region
29 Apr 2013
Chris remains just SE of Mourmelon-le-Grand in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France. He has been there since 19 April. The area looks like good Cuckoo habitat, comprising blocks of woodland and areas of open woodland and scrub around an airfield. Chris staying here is clearly an example of breeding dispersal (a change in breeding area between years) rather than a stop-over en route to East Anglia, although he could of course move on later in the breeding season. It’s possible that Chris had little success finding females at Cavenham Heath near Mildenhall last year, prompting him to try pastures new this season.
Although it is well-known that a small proportion of birds (and long-distance migrants in particular) disperse between successive breeding attempts, it has been fascinating to be able to observe this process through tracking Chris – especially as he initially returned to an area in Belgium that he visited during his southward passage last summer, suggesting that prior knowledge may have been important. It is very possible that Chris was able to find some females in this area last June, which might have made his decision about where to return to more straightforward!
David in reverse gear!
29 Apr 2013
Having still been in central Spain on 22 April, by the morning of the 24 April David had moved 350km (218 miles) NNE to the southern slopes of the Cantabrian Mountains in northern Spain. He didn’t stay there long though, as by two days later (Friday 26 April) he had moved a further 935km (580 miles) in a direction slightly E of N to the area around Sherborne on the border between Dorset and Somerset.
Very surprisingly, however, two locations received late that evening, less than two hours after the last one near Sherborne, showed that David was heading SSE over the Channel and was approaching the Cherbourg peninsula of Normandy! by the time his tag unexpectedly started transmitting the next afternoon (27 April) David had moved a total of 490km (305 miles) SE from Sherborne, taking him to a heavily wooded landscape about 72km (45 miles) E of Tours, in Centre region of France.
This is a really interesting example of spring reverse migration, a well-known phenomenon thought to occur when migrants arrive at a location and find conditions unsuitable for them. It usually involves birds moving down a mountain range or southwards, as in this case, in the hope of finding better conditions. David’s decision could have been influenced both by the cool daytime weather and falling evening temperatures on 26 April at Sherborne and by the general lack of advancement of the spring due to the unseasonably cold weather earlier on in March and April.
Chance back on the shores of Loch Katrine
29 Apr 2013
The sensor data on Chance’s tag indicated that he was actively migrating when he was recorded in Northumberland late on 25 April. By Sunday morning (28 April) he was back on the south shores of Loch Katrine, in the Trossachs National Park in the southern Highlands of Scotland, approximately 1.6km (1 mile) east of the location at which he was caught in May last year. He is the first of our tracked Cuckoos back at his tagging site this year, although Chris would no doubt have made it some time ago had he not apparently opted to stay and breed in France.
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