As the first of our tagged birds to arrive in Europe, we anticipated that Ashok may also be the first to make it to the UK this spring. Having spent a few days just to the west of Valencia in early April, he continued his journey north. Last weekend he covered over 1,000 km (620 miles), crossing the Pyrenees and flying onward through central France. 

After a short stop in the large forest of Rambouillet, just to the west of Paris, he swiftly carried on and touched down in Suffolk on 7 April. While we were delighted to see Ashok back on UK soil, he seemed less impressed… in less than 48 hours Ashok had flown 300 km (186 miles) south and returned to France! He is currently on the banks of the River Seine, close to the city of Rouen in Normandy. Hopefully he will find plenty of food here to fuel his journey back to Suffolk!    

Jim has made significant progress in recent days. Having left Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) nine days ago, he travelled approximately 4,400 km (2,734 miles), crossing the Sahara via Mali, Mauritania, Western Algeria and Morocco, before powering up through Spain, crossing the eastern Bay of Biscay, and into western France. His signal shows that he is currently taking a well-earned rest on the Island of Oléron, to the west of Rochefort. 

Cuach Cores left Ghana and flew north, passing through Burkina Faso, Mali and Algeria. His latest signal shows that he has now crossed the Mediterranean, and entered Spain close to the city of Almeria. From here he has continued a further 120 km (75 miles) north and his signal shows that he is in a mountainous region close to the small village of Cañadas de Cañepla. 

Sayaan has also left Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), and he is making excellent progress. After crossing the Sahara, he left the Algerian coast three days ago and skirted past the island of Ibiza, before passing through the Ebro Delta in the Spanish Province of Tarragona. From here, he continued north and is currently in the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park in the Pyrenees.    

Just nine days ago, Joe was still firmly in the forests of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Since that time he has flown some 3,500 km (2,175 miles), crossing the Sahara and the Mediterranean, and is currently in eastern Spain, in the mountains of the Serra Mariola Natural Park, north-west of Benidorm.

When we last checked in with Arthur, he was in Morocco, close to the city of Agadir. In a two day period, he covered just over 1,000 km (620 miles) and is currently in the Ciudad Real Province of Castile-La Mancha, in south-central Spain. 

Frederic has continued to take things pretty easy, finally moving west into Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in the last 24 hours. Hopefully he will spend a short time here, feeding up and preparing for his mammoth flight north across the vast expanse of the desert, before making his way into Europe.  

Having spent the last month in West Africa, feeding up and preparing for his flight across the Sahara, Arthur is now the second of our tagged Cuckoos to head decidedly north.

His latest signal, received this morning, shows that he is currently in western Morocco, close to the popular coastal town of Agadir, having flown some 2,500 km (1,550 miles) from Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Will Arthur be the second of our satellite tracked Cuckoos to cross the Mediterranean into Europe this spring?      

As we prepare for the return of our tagged Cuckoos from their wintering grounds, we have decided to declare Hafren ‘missing in action’. 

With the last signal received from his breeding area on 3 June 2025, his current whereabouts are unknown. Did he die in the UK last summer, or were there issues with his satellite tag? It’s highly likely that we’ll never know, but what can say is that between May 2024 (when he was tagged in Worcestershire) to his last signal over a year later, he provided us with some fascinating information.      

After he’d reached Cameroon in early March, we hadn’t received any signals from Ashok’s tag until this morning. 

It would appear that rather than heading west to join the other Cuckoos, he took off north across the central Sahara at some point in the last week, arriving in north-eastern Algeria. Since then he powered purposefully on, crossed the Mediterranean and arrived in the Almería region of south-east Spain yesterday evening!  

Ashok is not only the first of our tagged Cuckoos to arrive in Europe this spring but this is also the earliest ever date that one of our satellite tagged birds has done so.