Updates from our Cuckoos

We have been following Victor II since he was tagged on the shores of Loch Katrine in Perthshire, Scotland on 19 May 2021. He was so close to giving us two complete migrations to the Congo Basin and back but was found dead yesterday near Valencia and quickly reported by the finder to us. We have since been corresponding with the finder to secure the return of his tag and are urgently trying to arrange a post-mortem. 

While we are of course very sad to have lost Victor II, he may well have more to teach us. It is rare for us to have the opportunity to learn the cause of death of our Cuckoos. If we can arrange a post-mortem it could provide us with useful information about his general condition as well as the cause of death. We will examine his tag for wear and tear and hopefully arrange for it to be reconditioned and reused. We will of course update you with any new information we are able to glean over the coming weeks. In the meantime we bid farewell and thanks to Victor II and focus our attention on our three remaining birds - Joe, JAC and Ellis. 

Ellis has flown 300km (186 miles) north west overnight, taking him from Malaga to Extramedura. He is now just west of the city of Cáceres in west central Spain. 

After a couple of days close to the town of Casarabonela, Ellis has flown 31km (19 miles) north west and is now just north of the town of Almargen. He is now on farmland of olive groves, corn and sunflower. Last year he left Spain on 8 April and then spent 10 days in France before arriving back in the UK on 20 April.  

New updates received last night show that Victor II has flown 530km (330 miles) north east from his last location in north east Morocco, over the western part of the Mediterranean and into Spain. By 18:30 last night (Thursday 13 April) he was close to the town of La Pobla Llarga in the province of Valencia. He stopped off in Spain last year too, arriving on 15 April and pausing for a couple of days close to the city of Lleida in the west of Catalonia, before heading north towards Andorra and then on into France. Last year he arrived back in the UK on 1st May.

We are relieved to report that since our last update Victor II has flown 1,255km (780 miles) north, taking him from Mali to north east Morocco, completing his desert crossing. When we last heard from him he was 45km (28 miles) south west of city of Nador. Will he linger in north Africa or press on to Europe?  

After a longer journey through Western Sahara and Morocco than we had expected, Ellis is on the move again and by 10am yesterday morning (Wednesday 12 April) he had flown 795km (494 miles) out of Africa and into Los Alcornocales Natural Park in Andalusia, southern Spain. A single update received just after 8am this morning (Thursday 13 April) suggest that Ellis has continued north east and is near Gibralgalia in Malaga. 

Since arriving in the south of France Joe has relocated slightly east and is now close to the town of Manciet in the Gers department of southern France.

Ellis has flown 161km (100 miles) north within Morocco and is now 40km (25 miles) north east of the town of Sidi Ifni Province, Guelmim-Oued Noun, Morocco. Last year Ellis only stopped briefly in northern Morocco before pressing on to Spain on 31 March so he is spending much longer exploring Morocco this year.

New updates received from Victor II's tag early yesterday morning showed that he had set off on his desert crossing. At around 5am he was flying over east central Mauritania and by mid morning he was in north western Mali. By that time he had covered 1,830km (1,137 miles) and was 125km (78 miles) north west of the remote salt mining centre Taoudenni. This means he is in the hottest region and one of the driest regions on the planet where the average temperature is over 40 degrees C (104F) and average rainfall is between 1 and 2 cm per year. Clearly not a place Victor II will want to linger in. Last year he turned up in northern Spain on 15 April so hopefully when we next hear fom him he will have completed his crossing and be in north Africa or even Europe.  

When we last updated you Joe was on his way across the Sahara desert and by Thursday evening had reached southern Algeria. New updates received this morning (Sat 8 April) show that he has powered on across the desert, across the Mediterranean, over Spain and on to southern France! This means that since leaving Ivory Coast he has covered approximately 4,000km (2,485 miles). By 11am this morning he was close to the town of Tartas in Nouvelle-Aquitiaine in southwestern France. Will Joe now hold the lead and be the first of our tagged Cuckoos to reach the UK? Stay tuned to find out.