On 25 June Livingstone was close to the south coast of England but signals received late on Friday evening (28 June) revealed he had left the country and was in central France.  Locations placed him in the valley of around 8km (5 miles) north of Roanne, in the Loire department. He appears to be in a wooded area close to the Loire River which runs through Roanne. He is the sixth tagged Cuckoo to leave the UK and the second Scottish Cuckoo, following behind BB. Signals received yesterday (1 July) confirm he is still in the same area. 

Unlike the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland last year, which flew straight across the sea to Europe, Livingstone, has moved south, heading down the west of the country and then taking a south-easterly direction from the Irish Sea to cut across England to the south coast. Transmissions just before lunch on 25 June show he was just north of Waterlooville in Hampshire but a later signal shows he has crossed over the border to West Sussex and is now between South Harting and Rogate. Interestingly, Karma, another of the Cuckoos tagged in the same area of Scotland this year, has chosen another tactic, instead moving eastwards to Aberdeen. Will he fly to Europe across the sea or skirt down the east coast in a similar fashion? 

Livingstone was caught in the evening of 21 May at Loch Iain Oig, NE of Kyle of Lochalsh and NW of Balmacara. He was the fourth of our tagged cuckoos to be caught that day, a relief to the team as he completed our sample before the weather was due to close in the next day. Since then he has generally remained in the area 2-4km (1.25-2.5 miles) to the NNE of where he was caught. He took quite a while to arrive at the catching location, from that direction, so we may have lured him in from some distance away!