On Friday 3 July Valentine left his breeding grounds in Thetford, Norfolk and flew 588 km (365 miles) south east across the Channel and into eastern France. The latest signal received from his tag at 10 am yesterday morning show that he has remained in the same area, a few miles west of Charmes in the Vosges region in north-eastern France. Valentine's route south last year took him through Spain, by 18 July he was in Morocco and by a couple of days later he was in Burkina Faso having crossed the Sahara. If he follows the same plan this year we can expect rapid progress south from Valentine.
Updates from our Cuckoos
Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.
- If you enjoy these updates, please consider sponsoring a Cuckoo. Sponsors receive special updates about their chosen Cuckoo in the Cuckoo e-newsletter.
Valentine is in France!
06 Jul 2020
Local movements from Carlton II, PJ and Valentine
26 May 2020
Carlton II, PJ and Valentine are all busy flying around their breeding locations, with the odd possible feeding excursion elsewhere, in areas that might be better for their caterpillar food. Right now they will be chasing and mating with female Cuckoos (all our tagged birds are males).
Tennyson and Senan likely to be lost to us
26 May 2020
We've previously reported that Senan's tag battery has been low for a while and not charging properly. After a long period of silence, we were pleased to receive the locations from Algeria, and later from Spain, to show he was migrating. However, with no further signals since the 5 May, it looks like we may finally have lost contact with him. Similarly, Tennyson's battery has also experienced charging issues and we had hoped we would receive signals at some point during his northward movements, when the solar panel was exposed to longer periods of sunshine. However, we've not heard from his tag since early April. In both these cases it appears we have lost the tag signal rather than the bird and we hope both these Cuckoos return to the UK safely - even if it's unlikely we'll be able to update you. Do keep your eyes peeled if you are on the Norfolk/Suffolk border though!
Senan in Spain
04 May 2020
A series of new updates received from Senan's tag over the weekend show that he has crossed the Mediterranean, flying 610 km (380 miles) north from Algeria to Spain. He is now in the province of Cuenca, Castile-La Mancha, in eastern central Spain. As we have reported before, we think Senan's tag may stop transmitting any day so we are delighted to receive another update and will be keeping our fingers crossed that he will check in again over the next few days.
Valentine is back!
04 May 2020
Over the weekend Valentine flew the final leg of his return migration, covering 625 km (390 miles) from central France back to the BTO Nunnery Lakes Nature Reserve in Thetford, Norfolk. He is the third of our tagged Cuckoos to successfully complete their migration this year. One of our staff members spotted a tagged Cuckoo on the reserve this morning so it probably was Valentine!
Valentine reaches central France
28 Apr 2020
Valentine has pressed on through France since our last update, covering 325 km (202 miles) in a north-westerly direction into Central France. By 21:50 last night he was in a forested area, approximately 6.5 km west of Dun-sur-Auron.
PJ is back on his breeding grounds in Suffolk
27 Apr 2020
By 8pm last night PJ had arrived back in the King's Forest in Suffolk, just south west of Thetford. This marks the completion of PJ's fourth complete tracked migration cycle.
Valentine crosses the Mediterranean
26 Apr 2020
Over the last couple of days Valentine as left Tunisia and flown 867 km (539 miles) over the Mediterranean in a north-westerly direction, making landfall at 1730 just south of Martigues. Since then has has flown a further 112 km (70 miles) north west and by 2230 last night he was in the southern part of the Ardeche Gorges nature reserve in the Gard department of southern France.
Carlton II completes his return journey
25 Apr 2020
Carlton II didn't linger for long at the Burnham Beeches Golf Club, by 3pm yesterday afternoon he was passing Bungay in Suffolk and by 530pm he was close to Great Yarmouth. The last updates received early this morning show him just a few miles north-west of his breeding and tagging site at Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Carlton Marshes nature reserve and close to the village of St Olaves. This completes Carlton II's migration which covered a distance of approximately 16,700 km (10,377 miles) from Suffolk to Gabon and back again.
PJ heading home
25 Apr 2020
PJ didn't stop for long in the South Downs. Having arrived near the village of Treyford at around 4pm yesterday, by 8pm he was on the move again. By the time his last update arrived at 11pm last night he had flown a further 104 km (65 miles) north east and was near Nazeing in Essex. Hopefully when we receive the next update we will see that PJ is back on his breeding grounds in Suffolk again.
Share this page