Updates from our Cuckoos

A series of locations spanning the period from the early hours to mid-morning yesterday (Monday 6 July) all placed Lyster in the desert of southern Mauritania. He did not appear to move significantly during this but had progressed 570km (353 miles) SSW from his previous position late on 3 August. We would have expected Lyster to be continuing his migration during the hours of darkness, rather than stopping here, as this location is still a fair way into the desert and there does not appear to be much vegetation in the area. The temperature of his tag did not indicate any cause for concern but we should have more information tomorrow (Wednesday) about how Lyster is faring and whether he has completed the last leg of the desert crossing.

Iolo has become the fifth of our Cuckoos to make it to Africa! From his unconfirmed position near Selvena on the 3 August he has travelled 1,600 km (995 miles) SSE, flying over the Mediterannean Sea to Libya. According to unconfirmed locations he appeared to make landfall mid-morning on Sunday 5 August, east of Tripoli. He then continued on this heading for another 308km (191 miles) during the day and the last location received shows him in the district of Al Jafrah, central Libya. We expect he will continue to press on in a more or less continuous desert crossing from here.

After a period of silence from Iolo, locations received on the morning of 3 August show that he moved around 320km (200 miles) in a southerly direction from his position near Milan. The map shows a location just off the coast but unconfirmed locations show that he made landfall near Talmone, just south of this earlier location, and a further signal indicates he then went inland and north-east around 50km (30 miles). He is close to Selvena, a small hill-town in southern Tuscany, Italy.

On the afternoon of the 29 July Lyster was still transmitting from Catalonia, around 130 km (80 miles) west of Barcelona. Around 3am on the morning of 1 August we received an unconfirmed location which placed him travelling south over the Balearic Sea and, a matter of hours later, a signal showed that he had made land in Algeria. This last transmission placed him right on the coast, close to Sidi Ghiles, a town and commune in Tipaza Province in northern Algeria. It looks like he travelled around 570km (350 miles).

Locations received do not reveal whether he crossed straight from his position near Barcelona or whether he travelled down through Spain to minimise the sea crossing, or possibly even rested briefly on one of the Balearic Islands as he crossed over.  

Idemili was tagged on the 10 June and, once a name had been decided on with the funders of her tag, we announced Idemili’s recruitment to the ranks of the Cuckoo project on the 11 July. It was only days after this announcement, having just left Wales, that Idemili was found in a garden in Surrey in need of help, malnourished and having suffered an attack from other birds.

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Idemili was taken to the Widlife Aid hospital in Leatherhead and has been making good progress. Staff at both BTO and Wildlife Aid are elated with how far she has come, she has put on weight and has now reached 116g, almost 60% heavier than when she was brought in!

She has completed the regrowing of her missing wing feathers and has approximately 5cm left to grow on her tail. Her eye has not fully recovered and the vet who has looked at her has told Wildlife Aid that she has a damaged pupil and that she does not have 100% vision in that eye. However, she is perfectly able to pick caterpillars from leaves in her outdoor aviary so will be able to find food for herself. Wildlife Aid have done a fantastic job of rehabilitating her which has meant that we have had to start thinking about her release.

We were able to follow her movements for a month or so when she was in Wales before moving to Surrey. The terrible weather in Wales will have made it difficult for her to find food and no doubt contributed to the state she was found in after being attacked by other birds. She is now heavier than she was when she was first tagged, however, she will need to readjust to finding her own food, coping with the conditions in the real world and the physically challenging demands of migration. Adult Cuckoos are rarely found in the UK in August and most of our tagged males are now either staging in areas to the south of Switzerland or have crossed the Sahara. While a few females may still be in the UK and won’t have embarked on migration yet, Idemili was obviously ready to set off and is now quite far behind schedule.

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Now that she is back to health we have had to think about whether it is both scientifically and ethically right to reattach the tag to a rehabilitated bird who has already been through such a tough time, and has yet to make it to Africa and the crossing of the Sahara Desert. Whilst it would be very interesting to be able to track a rehabilitated bird, both for science and to gather information for those who invest time in the rehabilitation of individuals, we felt this wasn't appropriate. Whether translocated to staging areas in southern Europe (or straight to Africa) by Wildlife Aid or not, Idemili’s unusual few months and the fact that her journey has been delayed while she recovers will no doubt affect the validity of the science that we gather from tracking her. Would the experience affect what she does in the coming months or would it be typical of female Cuckoos?

With all these factors in mind, we have decided that she will not be tagged. We are understandably disappointed that we were only able to track such a small part of her journey and that we will not be able to track her further, as I am sure that many Cuckoo sponsors and supporters will also be, but we have to put Idemili’s welfare first and give her the best start in what will be a long journey to her winter destination.

In around another week or so her tail feathers should be fully regrown and Wildlife Aid will make a decision about where to release her. We will keep you updated on her blog with any news. To find out more about Wildlife Aid visit their website here or make a donation here – and don’t forget to mention Idemili in the comments box!

If you would like to follow one of our Cuckoos, sponsor your favourite here.

Last we heard from Wildlife Aid was that Idemilli was still doing well and had reached 104g in weight. Her eye was still healing but was more open and her damaged and lost feather replacements were growing well. Take a look at the photos of her recovery here.

Apart from Indy, there is little news for the Cuckoos tagged in Wales – we have not received any recent locations for Iolo as his tag is not charging well (which might suggest he is soon to head south), Lloyd has moved 45km (28 miles) SW of Turin and David is still in Montenegro.

We have seen little movement in recent days from the Cuckoos tagged in England, with Lyster remaining in Catalonia, John still near Bayonne, Reacher still in Andalucia (although unconfirmed locations suggest he has moved to the south coast, just east of Malaga) and Chris just north of Lake Chad.

BB continued his movement south from Egypt and successfully completed his desert crossing during the early hours of Saturday 28 July, reaching south-western Sudan by the time his tag stopped transmitting, becoming the first of our tracked Cuckoos recorded in that country. By the morning of Monday 30 July he had moved 193km (120 miles) due W to a location just over the border in Chad. He is now at a very similar latitude to Chris and Mungo, who have remained just north of lake Chad, but he 764km (475 miles) to their east.

On Saturday morning (28 July) Wallace was still in Picardie but according to a series of unconfirmed locations, by the early hours of this morning (30 July) he had moved 390km (243 miles) ESE to a location in extreme south-western Germany. If these prove to be correct, he is approximately 23km (13 miles) NE of the Petite Camargue Alsacienne - a research station in the south-eastern corner of France where Valentin Amrhein and his group from University of Basel have undertaken exciting research on the function of Nightingale song. He appears to be in a forested landscape to the east of the river valley containing the Nightingales.