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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.

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Catching the Cuckoo Class of 2013

24 May 2013
We've received tag transmissions from Chris on 24 May, from David and Chance on 23 May and from BB on 22 May which show that they all remain on their respective breeding grounds. 
 
Meanwhile, the Cuckoo Team have been travelling all over the place, visiting sites to tag new Cuckoos. So far they have tagged birds in Devon, Sussex and the Highlands of Scotland and they now have a few more birds to tag in Norfolk to complete the complement for this year. The team found that cuckoos were surprisingly abundant around Skye and adjacent parts of the mainland and managed to catch six birds - and tag four - in just one day before the weather closed in. These new birds will appear on the website and will be available for sponsorship in the next few weeks! Watch this space!

Finding Chris

16 May 2013
That was the task set by a team from Anglia News, and so, the morning of Tuesday 14 May saw the BTO’s Paul Stancliffe on Natural England’s Cavenham Heath, Suffolk in search of a bird that the BTO tagging team last saw two years previously.  There was only a short wait before the first Cuckoo appeared and as Chris had been in the spot the team were now standing on only a few hours earlier, there was a good chance that it could be him – it wasn’t.
 
Another bird appeared and began to chase the first – this wasn’t Chris either – but then a third cuckoo joined them - this had to be Chris; it wasn’t.  After a short wait another bird appeared from nowhere sporting the aerial of a satellite tag – we had found him! After two years and 40,000+ miles since he was last seen, he looked good and full of energy, joining in with the other male cuckoos on the heath in chasing a female. What an amazing bird! Watch the ITV Anglia photage on our YouTube channel here.

The end of the journey for Lloyd

13 May 2013

Transmissions from the last few days show that all four Cuckoos which have returned to their breeding grounds are still in their respective areas. They are likely to remain in and around these areas looking for breeding opportunities for at least the next month.We now assume Lloyd has perished in Morocco as there is no reason for him to remain in his current position for so long. Last year, the earliest Cuckoo to leave the UK was Chris, on the 11 June, while David and BB left on 18 and Chance on the 22 June. Wallace, one of the birds tagged in Scotland last year, was the last to leave, transmitting from outside the UK on 23 July, just one day later than the last bird, Lyster, in 2011. 

Chris leaves France for the UK

07 May 2013
On the evening of 1 May Chris left the Champagne-Ardenne Region, heading north-west through Picardy and by the early hours of 4 May Chris was back in the UK, at Lakenheath Warren just east of RAF Lakenheath. By the following afternoon he was back at Cavenham Heath, the area that he spent six weeks in last summer. 
 
The two weeks Chris spent in France would have been plenty of time for him to have already have had some reproductive success this year. Although last year he spent the same period in Italy, we certainly don't believe his stay in France was a simple stop-over and think he would have been behaving as a breeding bird whilst there. It's possible either that he was 'programmed' to return to Britain around a certain date (last year it was 4 days earlier) and chanced his luck in France whilst biding his time, having been keen to push on from southern Europe earlier in April. It's also possible that, like David, he had already returned to Britain during his tag's 'off' period, around 14 April, but then quickly returned to France to wait for conditions to become more suitable. The fact that he moved south by about 130km (80 miles) from Belgium, before establishing himself near Mourmelon-le-Grand in Champagne-Ardennes region, may indicate this is what he's done. 

Chris remains in the Champagne-Ardenne region

29 Apr 2013
Chris remains just SE of Mourmelon-le-Grand in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France. He has been there since 19 April. The area looks like good Cuckoo habitat, comprising blocks of woodland and areas of open woodland and scrub around an airfield. Chris staying here is clearly an example of breeding dispersal (a change in breeding area between years) rather than a stop-over en route to East Anglia, although he could of course move on later in the breeding season.  It’s possible that Chris had little success finding females at Cavenham Heath near Mildenhall last year, prompting him to try pastures new this season. 
 
Although it is well-known that a small proportion of birds (and long-distance migrants in particular) disperse between successive breeding attempts, it has been fascinating to be able to observe this process through tracking Chris – especially as he initially returned to an area in Belgium that he visited during his southward passage last summer, suggesting that prior knowledge may have been important. It is very possible that Chris was able to find some females in this area last June, which might have made his decision about where to return to more straightforward! 
 

Chris in no hurry

23 Apr 2013

It seems that Chris is in no hurry to get back to the UK, in fact, he has begun to head south again. Yesterday he was close to the French town of Suippes, and around 80km (50 miles) south of the Belgian border. Having been as close as 210km (130 miles) to the English coast, he is now 100km (60 miles) further south. It is beginning to look like he might well stay in France this year. However, there is still plenty of time for him to change his mind.

Chris hanging out in France

18 Apr 2013

The duty cycle of Chris’ tag has been resetting, possibly due to him perching on power lines. Consequently, we received unexpected additional locations throughout Tuesday and Wednesday (16 and 17 April) which showed he moved from Belgium into France, to the west of the Ardennes Mountains. Although it’s not possible to be precise, he appears to have been in the Parc Naturel Régional de l’Avesnois in Nord Pas-de-Calais region. The area is characterised by the ‘bocage’ landscape – small pastures surrounded by hedges and interspersed by blocks of woodland of various sizes. As we have seen elsewhere including in Africa, areas with mixtures of woodland and grassland make excellent cuckoo habitat. Will Chris find this area more to his liking than the Thetford Forest area and stay here through the breeding season? 

Chris now in Belgium

16 Apr 2013

When Chris’ tag resumed transmissions early this morning it revealed he had indeed continued northward, as expected – but not to England! A series of locations placed him in southern Belgium and although each was an unconfirmed location whose accuracy couldn’t be assessed, taken together they indicate that he was travelling slowly westwards around the northern periphery of the Ardennes Mountains. Chris’ current location is within 100km of the areas that he stopped over in the late summers of 2011 and 2012 and in fact visited this very area during his ‘mini-tour’ of NW Europe last June but we had no indication that he visited the area last spring. Will he stay here for a while before returning to England? Will he defy expectations and not return to England at all this spring? Watch this space!

Chris heads for 'home'

15 Apr 2013

When Chris’ tag resumed transmissions as the skies cleared on Saturday evening (13 April), two locations showed he was still south of Autun in Burgundy, central France. Between the times of the two locations, however, his tag’s temperature dropped by 4 degrees C, probably indicating the initiation of migration, and sure enough, an hour and a half later he was 80km (50 miles) to the NNW. In total, Chris advanced about 120km (75 miles) in the 3.5 hours after dusk. Further unconfirmed locations for the early hours of Sunday morning suggested that he had stopped about 80km (50 miles) to the east of Paris, possibly due to the rain that lay to his north. If indeed he did stop here, we expect he would have resumed his migration the next night so it is likely that when his tag comes on again on Tuesday morning, he will be back in England – watch this space!

Rain stops play for Chris

11 Apr 2013
Early last week Chris moved across the Sahara and onwards into Italy, after a brief stop in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria, at a very similar rate of progress to last year. Although he then surprised us by continuing north-west into central France (whereas last year he remained in Italy for two and a half weeks), he has now stalled – temporarily at least. Signals received this afternoon (Thursday 11 April) show that he remains in Burgundy and has moved 10km (6 miles) east to a large forest block interspersed with grassy fields about 14km (9 miles) south of Autun. This looks like a great place for a Cuckoo and the sensor data indicate that all is currently well with Chris.
 
This area has experienced several long periods of heavy rain over the 2-3 days that Chris has been there – in fact we think that one band of rain may have been responsible for him stopping here in the first place. With warmer, brighter weather with southerly winds forecast for the coming weekend (both in Burgundy and here in southern England), it wouldn’t be surprising to see him back in England – or at least heading this way - by the time his tag resumes transmissions late on Saturday night.

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