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Updates from our Cuckoos

Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their migration.

Valentine has crossed the desert

22 Jul 2019
Since our last update Valentine has become the second of our tagged Cuckoos to successfully cross the Sahara. From his location in Morocco he has flown south east into Algeria and then due south over Mali to Burkina Faso. He is currently in the Rollo Department, a commune of Bam Province in north-western Burkina Faso. He is 125 km (78 miles) north of the capital Ouagadougou. 

Valentine arrives in Morocco

18 Jul 2019
An update from Valentine at 19:40 last night (Wednesday July 17) showed that he had completed his crossing of the Mediterranean and was in the High Atlas mountains in central Morocco. By 22:57 last night he had flown 737 km (458 miles) from his last stop over site in southern Spain and was near Iriqui National Park, in the Atlas mountains close to the border with Algeria. Interestingly he was just 4.8 km (3 miles) from the spot where Nottingham Cuckoo Bill perished in April 2017 (Bill's tag is still transmitting).  It'll be interesting to see whether Valentine pushes on across the desert from here. 

Valentine heading for Africa?

16 Jul 2019
By the morning of July 13 Valentine had crossed the Pyrenees and was in northern Spain 19 km (11 miles) east of Barbastro. By 7 pm on July 15 he had flown a further 610 km (379 miles) south and was just north of Benahadux in Andalucia, Spain. The last signal received from Valentine came in at 10 pm last night when he appeared to be 65 km (40 miles) out over the Mediterranean on a heading for the Cape of Three Forks in northern Morocco. We'll have to await the next data transmission to see whether Valentine will become the second of our Cuckoos to reach Africa this year. 

Valentine heads south

12 Jul 2019
Over the last 48 hours Valentine has flown 456km (284 miles) south west to his new location near Marmande in south-western France. 

Valentine south of Paris

03 Jul 2019
Valentine completed his crossing of the English Channel and was 50km (30 miles) south of Paris by the evening of 25 June, 340km (210 miles) from his last location near Canterbury.  Since then he’s been roving around the area between Blandy and Maisse. 

Meet the 2019 Cuckoos

25 Jun 2019

We’re delighted to introduce some new faces to the project! Catching the birds has been challenging this year with seemingly less competition for females and so less interest in the female lure used, but thanks to the persistence of our super tagging team, we do have four new male Cuckoos to introduce to you.

Three of these newly-tagged birds are already on the way, crossing the Channel and moving into France within the last few days. Take a look at the individual blogs to find out more.

Valentine joins the race

25 Jun 2019

One of two birds tagged on the BTO reserve in early June, Valentine has also set off on his southward migration. By the early evening of 23 June, Valentine was northeast of Canterbury. A couple of further poor quality transmissions indicate he carried on and embarked on crossing the English channel, just south of Folkestone, but we will have to wait for the next cycle of transmissions later today to reveal how far south he has travelled. He is the 7th of our tagged Cuckoos to start their migration. 

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