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. If you enjoy these updates, please consider sponsoring a Cuckoo. Sponsors receive special updates about their chosen Cuckoo in the Cuckoo e-newsletter.
Roy in Austria
Having reached southern Germany by 10 July, Roy continued to press on and by 13 July he was in the state of Carinthia in southern Austria. By 15 July he was settled a few kms north of Millstätter See, giving a total onward movement of 245km (153 miles) SSE form his position in Germany.
No further movements from Wallace, Mungo, Chance or BB
With the exception of Roy, there has been little recent movement by the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland - Wallace remains in Ayrshire; BB remains in north-eastern Italy; Mungo remains in Switzerland close to Mont Blanc; Chance remains just south of Berlin.
No movement from Reacher or John
Reacher remains on the French Mediterranean coast close to Perpignan whilst John remains in the Lorraine region of northern France.
Chris in Sicily
Chris has made very rapid progress over the past few days. Having been still near Antwerp on 7 July, an unconfirmed location on Thursday 12 July placed him in the Po watershed, near the river Po itself NE of Parma. We assumed he would be set in for a prolonged stop-over in preparation for his Sahara crossing but the expected confirmation of this location never came. Instead, we received a series of locations on Sunday 15 July that he had passed straight over mainland Italy and had stopped in Sicily! It will be very interesting to see if he carries out a stop-over and successfully crosses the desert from here as it will already be very dry here at this stage of the summer.
Lyster heading towards Spain
Having been close to Montpellier on 12 July, Lyster was next picked up on the Spanish-French border 15km (9 miles) east of Andorra in the evening of 14 July. Unconfirmed locations (that won’t show on the map) suggested he had continued migrating that night and by the end of the night he was 70km (43 miles) WSW from here in north-eastern Spain. This is confirmation that Lyster is taking the westerly route into Africa through Iberia, as he did last year.
Lloyd heads to Italy
From his position close to Marseille, Lloyd has crossed over to the west coast of Italy. A transmission this morning showed him 418km (260 miles) from his previous location, and locates him south-east of the city of Pisa, close to the communes of Pecioli and Lajatico.
Lyster in south of France
We didn't receive any confirmed locations from the Champagne-Ardenne region, so these points won't show on the map, however, Lyster isn't hanging around and has continued onwards. We have received transmissions from the south coast of France showing that he is currently 21km (13 miles) south of Montpellier. This now makes him one of the most southerly Cuckoos.
Breaking news on Idemili
After spending a month at her tagging location in Brechfa Forest, Idemili followed her male colleagues and moved eastwards to Surrey. She was in Wales on the evening of the 9th July and we next heard from her in Surrey on the morning of the 11 July.
We thought all was well but received a phone call today (13 July) from the Wildlife Aid Foundation in Leatherhead to say she had been picked up yesterday (12 July) in a garden in Tolworth, Surrey. She was underweight and had some wounds to her wing and some feathers were missing from her head indicating she had been attacked by another bird.
She survived the night and is taking mealworms, crickets and water so there is hope that she will recover. Whilst the bird hospital have confirmed that she shows no evidence of damage from the tag, Dr Chris Hewson, lead scientist on the project at the BTO, will visit Idemili tomorrow (14 July) to remove her tag while she recuperates, and to assess her physical condition. She is in excellent hands at the hospital and we will be keeping a close eye on her as she recovers.
To find out more about the Wildlife Aid Foundation, or to support their work, take a look at their website here.
Tracking female Cuckoos
We are really excited to be following a female British Cuckoo for the first time. It might seem strange that we have only tagged one female Cuckoo but this has been more by circumstance than design. The aim of BTO scientists was always to catch and fit satellite tags on five female birds this year, with a view to determining whether or not the migration of female birds differs from that of male cuckoos. However, females have proved surprisingly difficult to catch this spring, a combination of the seemingly late arrival in some areas (when the Scottish males were being tagged not a single female was heard) and the unusually wet and windy weather didn't help with the task.
115589 receives a name
115589 is the last English Cuckoo to receive a name. He has been named John in memory of the late John Tully who was a long-standing BTO Member, Regional Organiser (Avon), Chair of our Regional Network Committee and superb ornithologist.