Updates from our Cuckoos

Sayaan is making steady progress and has travelled around 167 km (103 miles) in recent days.

Currently in the Côte-d’Or area, he is exploring a commercially forested area just 16 km (10 miles) to the west of the city of Dijon, the capital city of the Burgundy region of eastern France.

Having spent the past few weeks around Cranwich Heath, just north of Thetford in Norfolk, Joe has now set off on his ‘autumn’ migration. Heading south-east, he passed Colchester, then cut down to the Kent coast before setting off across the Channel, leaving UK soil between Folkestone and Dover.

Having made landfall around the Somme Estuary, after a flight of around 265 km (164 miles), he is now resting and feeding before continuing his journey through France.

Since being tagged in June 2022, this is the third successive autumn migration where Joe will be tracked, providing us with yet more invaluable data.

Having spent the breeding season in and around the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, Sayaan has now headed south. He left the English coast at Worthing on the exact same date as he did last year! 

He cut across the Channel and arrived in France, just south of Dieppe after a journey of 380 km (236 miles). Sayaan then continued towards Paris, skirting the north-east of the French capital, and is currently just north of the city of Sens.

Remarkably, Sayaan is now around just 50km (31 miles) to the west of Cuach Torc!

Since our last update, Cuach Torc has moved from the south of Bayeux and flown around 355 km (220 miles) to an area close to the River Seine, and the medieval town of Troyes, in the Champagne region.

By this time last year Torc had already travelled as far as northern Italy – when might he be saying ‘Au revoir’ to France and ‘Ciao’ to Italy this year?

Cuach Torc didn’t linger in Cornwall for long, and as we expected, soon headed for France, passing between Guernsey and Alderney on the way.

A flight of 325 km (200 miles) saw him heading into north-west Normandy, where he is currently exploring the sprawling agricultural region just to the south of Bayeux.

Having made a move to the County Waterford coast from Killarney National Park several days ago, Torc has now finally set off from Ireland, after a stay of 45 days.  

He flew a relatively short distance of 276 km (171 miles) to Cornwall, where he is currently just to the east of Falmouth. The second of our tagged birds to head south after the breeding season, his next move should see him making the 180 or kilometres (110 miles) to France in the coming days.

Since leaving Ireland and arriving in north-west France a week ago, Cuach Cores has been taking it relatively easy, moving slowly south-eastwards into the Loire-Atlantique region.

Currently just north of the medieval town of Châteaubriant, he will likely head towards Italy and head down to Africa via an eastern route.

With no updates since April, we have to conclude that, very sadly, we've probably heard the last from Bluey. We had already lost him once, but against the odds we were able to recatch him on his breeding grounds and so, his has been a particularly exciting journey to follow. We can't be sure why we have lost contact with him this time, so who knows, perhaps we'll encounter him again in future. 

Cuach Cores was the last of our tagged Cuckoos to arrive back in the breeding grounds, and he is also the first to start heading back to Africa!

After spending just 28 days in Ireland, he took off south overnight and made landfall on the Brittany coast this morning (6 June) after a flight of 539km (335 miles).

Cuach Torc is the first of our tagged Cuckoos to show signs of leaving his breeding grounds in Killarney National Park, having moved 110km (68 miles) east to the Cork / Waterford border. 

He appears to be primed, ready to make a sea crossing any day now! Having arrived back in Ireland on 2 May, Torc may well be on French soil by the weekend.