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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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Selborne is off!

20 Jun 2017
Selborne has become our second tagged Cuckoo to leave the UK. From the New Forest he has travelled 330km (205 miles) to
La Guerche-de-Bretagne, a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany. He arrived here in northwestern France on 17 June. He spent just under two months in the UK.  

Selborne still in the New Forest

23 May 2017
Since arriving back in the New Forest Selborne has explored it pretty thoroughly. The most recent locations recieved from his tag show that he is now spending most of his time in an area northeast of Brockenhurst and to the northwest of Furzey Lodge. He has also visited heath to the southwest of Beaulieu Road Station.

Selborne is back

18 Apr 2017
During the early evening of Easter Sunday, Selborne arrived back in the New Forest. Since his arrival he has mostly been in the area of forest just to the north and west of Beaulieu, between Pig Bush and Beaulieu Road Station.

Selborne is the first to return to the UK!

13 Apr 2017
A series of poor locations show that Selborne has made it back to the UK and become the first of our tagged Cuckoos to arrive back! We await good signals to confirm his location, and when these are received the map will update to show this. When his tag powered back on during the early eve of 11 April he was still in Brittany but it was only a couple of hours before he then started heading north over Normandy and the English Channel to reach the Isle of Wight in the early hours of the morning. He has only a short distance to go before he is back on his breeding grounds in the New Forest. Perhaps he will make this short trip over the Easter holidays?

Selborne almost home

11 Apr 2017
Locations received from Selborne's tag on 9 April showed that he had crossed the Pyrenees and was heading north. During the late evening his tag powered down to enable the solar panel on the tag to recharge the battery that powers it. At this stage Selborne was in Brittany and only 320km (199 miles) from his New Forest home. It is likely that Selborne continued north through the night and when we next hear from him he could be back in the UK.

Selborne in northern Spain

28 Mar 2017

From Algeria, Selborne has flown a further 1000km (660 miles) to arrive in northern Spain in the late morning of 27 March. He is in the southern Pyrenees and the closest large town is Jaca (NW of his latest location). He has been moving around in local forest so looks to be foraging to fuel up for the last leg of his return journey. How soon he returns will depend on his ability to find food and be able to rest.

Selborne crosses the desert

27 Mar 2017
A series of locations received from Selborne's tag between 14.30 and 19.00 on 24 March showed that he was heading north across the Sahara, and that he had made it into central Algeria, and that he was about halfway through the desert crossing. This was the last we heard from the tag until 03.00 on 25 March. He had made it, and was just north of the desert town of El Guerra. Selborne is the first of our tagged Cuckoos to cross the desert this spring.

Selborne moves north

07 Mar 2017
Selborne has moved north and east, leaving Guinea and crossing into Ivory Coast.He is currently in an area of forest just south west of Bako.

Selborne heads for southern forest

07 Feb 2017
Having gone so far north and west, past the rains, it's reassuring to see that Selborne has headed south a little to the Guinean forests, where conditions are likely to be better than his previous location 115km (70 miles north). 

Selborne in West Africa

03 Feb 2017

We have our first Cuckoo in West Africa and it's Selborne! Having left land and set off across the Gulf of Guinea, it looks like Selborne travelled around 240km (150 miles) to the volcanic island of Bioko. Here he seems to have rested for the day on 28 January in the Luba Crater Scientific Reserve which is a protected area with dense rainforest. 

When he left he headed off on a different tangent to that he had been taking, travelling 1185km (735 miles) straight towards Ghana, arriving there sometime before 10am on 30 January. By 10pm on 1 Feb he was already a further 800km (500 miles) north-west and was in southern Guinea. His tag location shows him to be in the densely forested mountainous plateau of the Guinea Highlands.

This is the earliest we have seen one of our tagged Cuckoos this far west - they don't normally get here until late March or April. His oversea passage might be related to this (i.e. not going around the Gulf of Guinea but over it) - he really seems to have been making a beeline for a specific destination a long way west, unlike our other cuckoos which head west into West Africa much slower, stopping at suitable locations along the way. It's a bit worrying as he has overshot the rains by some margin, so we have to hope he finds suitable locations.

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