It looks likely that BB, Peter, Skinner, Waller and Whortle have failed to complete their migration this year, or their tags are no longer transmitting, and so we will be moving all of them to the inactive section of the website.

From time to time we ‘lose’ one or two of our Cuckoos only for them to reappear several days, or even weeks, later. We are never entirely sure why this might be at the individual level but during the course of the project we have noticed similarities between some of the ‘lost’ birds.

We have lost some of our birds just prior to them making a large movement and we think that this might be because they move into denser vegetation in order to feed up before embarking on a long flight. Moving into denser vegetation may mean that the solar panel that recharges the battery for the tag is in shade for periods of time and the battery receives a poorer charge, which in turn results in poorer performance from the satellite tag.

Once the birds have put on enough weight to begin their journey they move into the open and the tag begins charging again and the birds ‘reappear’. We also see the same thing happen, although to a lesser extent, when birds complete a long movement and presumably move into denser vegetation to rest and feed up

Emsworthy and Whortle, who had both been south of Lake Mai, have moved off to new locations. Emsworthy has travelled 280km (175 miles) north and is now close to Mbandaka while Whortle has headed  370km (230 miles) in a north-easterly direction and become the most easterly Cuckoo of all those that we are currently following. This could be due to a change in the conditions in the area which has caused them to seek new locations.   

Whortle is settledin the rainforest to the north east of Lake Mai-Ndombe in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We last heard from him at 16.12 on 9 December.

With most cuckoos now in the Sahel region, we're entering a fairly quiet period in the annual cycle of the tagged cuckoos with less movement than during the migration season.

Birds who completed their desert crossing will spend time in the Sahel recovering their body condition, and some may stay quite a long time. In previous years, cuckoos have stayed in this area for as much as several months, while others spend a shorter amount of time before moving south into the humid zone forests.

The eastern Sahel in Chad and south Sudan has received plenty of rain recently, and thus conditions are likely good for cuckoos. Northern Cameroon was slightly drier than average in August, and so cuckoos such as Derek, Dudley, Stanley, and Emsworthy may be moving on if foraging conditions aren't suitable.

Three Cuckoos are now safely across the desert, including Meavy, who had grounded and stayed in the same area for a few days. He is now in north Benin while Dudley is in Nigeria and Whortle is further to the east in Sudan. 

On Saturday 12 July transmissions were received from both Dudley and Whortle to show they had arrived in Africa.

Dudley has cut across to Africa, from his location in Spain to Niger. Whortle, however, has taken a completely different route to last year - travelling via Italy towards Libya/Egypt! This is a real surprise as last year he went west via Spain to western Africa and then to Niger. Over 4,000km (2,500 miles) separate the two locations within Africa! How will this complete change in route affect the rest of his journey and what are the reasons behind this dramatic difference? In previous years, while we have seen some minor changes, routes have remained relatively similar. It shows that the more we learn about Cuckoos, and the possible reasons for their declining populations, the more questions are raised!  

Dudley and Whortle join Meavy, the first Cuckoo to arrive in Africa, who had grounded in the Algerian desert. Since then he has continued south to Niger but has still yet to complete his desert crossing, indicating he may be struggling.   

From France, via Corsica, Ash appears to now be in Italy. He joins Hennah, who had also been in France and perched in the Pyrenees close to the France/Spain border but who also recently changed direction and headed to Italy to take this more easterly route. Whortle, Peter, Waller, and Livingstone are all also currently in Italy. 

With three un-named birds left we are letting you choose what to name one of our Sherwood Cuckoos!  Anyone who sponsors a Cuckoo before the end of June will be entered in to a draw. We’ll then pick one entry at random and will contact the winner who can then suggest a suitable name*. Find out how you could name a Cuckoo. 

Emsworthy has travelled over the border from France to join Whortle, Livingstone and Peter in Italy. Livingstone and Peter are in the Po Valley, an area that the project has shown to be important to many of our Cuckoos,  while Whortle and Emsworthy are currently close to the valley edge. 

Emsworthy's move this year, from France along and into Italy, looks remarkably similiar to Whortle's movement last year, just before he suprised us by retreating back to France and then down through Spain to Africa.  This year Whortle has headed straight to Italy and not stopped in France as far as we can tell. Will he head through Spain as last year or make the flight to Africa directly from Italy? Which route will fellow Devon Cuckoo Emsworthy take? 

Hennah, Chester, Whortle and 134952 all transmitted from outside of the UK on 19 June. Whortle, one of the Devon birds tagged in 2013, hadn't even left the UK this time last year, having only transmitted from outside of the UK on 28 June in 2013.

Whortle, Chester and as yet un-named 134952 are the most recent Cuckoos confirmed to have left the UK. All three of these birds have travelled to north-western France, transmitting these updated locations on 19 June.   

Poor quality signals received on the same day indicate that two further Cuckoos have started their journeys. Hennah and Meavy look like they are in France too but until further locations are received to confirm this the maps won't update.

So we have at least 8 and possibly 10 Cuckoos which have left the UK. If the unconfirmed locations are true, then interestingly, all three Dartmoor birds (Emsworthy, Whortle and Meavy) and all three New Forest birds (Peter, Gilbert and Hennah) have left.  In addition one Scottish bird, 2 Nottinghamshire birds and one of the Sussex birds have also left the UK. 

During the late evening of 24 April Whortle began moving north out of Portugal and when he next transmitted on 27 April at 07.00 and was in western France, north of La Rochelle.  By early evening on 29 April, he has travelled a further 330km (205 miles) and was in the north western tip of France on the Channel coast, close to Saint-Pol-de-Leon.  Today (2 May) at 03.26 the satellite picked him up back in the UK and on Dartmoor, 1.5km (1 mile) north east of Buckland in the Moor and 1km (.5 miles) from his 2013 tagging site.

Whortle's tag sent signals from just inside the border of Portugal on 17 April, close to  Almeida, in the Guarda region which borders Spain. He has remained in this location since then. 

We hadn't received transmissions from Whortle's tag since 26 March so we were surprised to check the map this morning and find that Whortle had crossed the desert!  From Ivory Coast, he travelled 2400km (1490 miles) to Algeria, and were able to follow him heading north to Morocco through the night of 14 and early morning of 15 April. His last location was just north of Fez, close to Skinners Moroccan location.  

Signals received on 26 March show Whortle has left Cameroon and is now in Ivory Coast having completed a  journey of 2050km (1290 miles).  It’s not clear how long the journey took as we don’t know when he started moving west. His new location is just 6km (4 miles) from both Skinner and Chris’s locations. 

Whortle has continued north and has left Congo. He is now 645km (401 miles) north-west of Lake Mai and is currently in south-east Cameroon, in the Nki National Park. 

Since his 90km north-easterly movement from Lake Mai, Whortle has headed a further 76km (47 miles) in a north-westerly direction and is now 154km (96 miles) north of the lake, and just 10km from Mbandaka on the banks of the Congo River.

On the 24 December, locations show that Whortle had moved 90km (55 miles) north-east from his previous location near Lake Mai.

Patch stayed in his location near the lake until the 26 December but also moved away, in a north-westerly direction, of around 75km (47 miles). This movement took him close to the area which Waller had recently departed as he journeyed back to Congo. Will Patch follow Waller and move even further north?

David, Patch, Waller and Whortle are all still in the Democratic Republic of Congo and all the tags have transmitted within the last few weeks. Patch and Waller are still close to the shores of Lake Mai while Whortle is a little further north,  

David, our one remaining Welsh tagged Cuckoo, has gone the longest without transmitting, with the last signal received just over a week ago on 16 December. This year David is a little ahead of schedule, having spent Christmas further north in the swamp forests in 2012 and moving a few days after to the area he is now in, just north of the Salonga National Park and close to a tributary of the Congo River. 

We are still following two of the four Cuckoos tagged in Dartmoor earlier this spring. Tor is in Congo, west of the Téké Plateau and Whortle is in the closed canopy forest in DRC, between Lac Mai and Lac Mumba and is midway between Patch and Waller.

The other two Cuckoos tagged there both perished in August, Ryder struggled to cross the desert once he arrived in Africa, while Dart made it to Mallorca but wa likely affecfed by dry conditions and wildfires there.

By lunchtime on 29 October, Whortle had travelled 550km (340 miles) south-east from his  location in Congo and crossed over the border and in to the Democratic Republic of Congo.  He is to the south-east of Lake Tumba (or Ntomba), a shallow lake in the Bikoro Territory which is connected to the Congo River and which lies at the center of the Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe area, a designated Wetland of International Importance.

This new location places him 140km (85 miles) south of Waller and 200km (120 miles) south-east of Chris and Derek. Patch is 130km (80 miles) to the south-west, in an area close to Lake Mai-Ndombe. 

Whortle crossed from Nigeria into Cameroon by 19 October and then moved eastwards across the South region by 22 October. From here he then headed 120k (75miles) south into north-west Congo before travelling a further 80km (50 miles) east by 27 October. This new location places him just 80k (50 miles) to the north-east of Skinner. He has a choice of National Parks to visit from here, with Nki National Park to the north, Odzala-Kokoua National Parl to the south and Minkebe National Parl to the west of his current location.

Whortle has also moved south a further 730km (450 miles) within Nigeria and yesterday morning was in the Cross River region of southern Nigeria. He is close to the border with Cameroon. 

Since the 13 September, Whortle has also been slowly travelling eastwards, across the Tahoua region of Niger. He covered around 370km (230 miles) eastwards in three days before then heading directly south, travelling a further 220km (136 miles). This latest movement has taken him inside the border of Nigeria, and into the Zamfara region. Transmissions received on 21 September, along with further signals today, show him stil in the area. Interestingly, this has been recently departed by Skinner the Cuckoo, who has surprisingly travelled north and west (the opposite direction to most of our Cuckoos!) into the Sokoto region.  Will Whortle stay here for long or is Skinner's departure an indication that conditions are not suitable?  

From his position close to the border, Whortle had crossed over from Mali in to Niger by 9 September and covered 250km (155 miles) in a south-easterly direction. From here he then travelled north-east 100km (65 miles). He is currently in the Tillaberi region of Niger.   

Locations on 2nd September show Whortle close to the Niger river but by early morning on 4 September he had already continued 290km (180 miles) in a south-easterly direction and was close to the border with both Burkina Faso and Niger. His current location is between the Partielle De Faune D'ansongo-Menaka, an area which was apparently first created to conserve the giraffes which are sadly no longer there, and the Sahel Reserve. He is roughly 730km (500 miles) to the north-west of Ken and Skinner - not too bad given his comparatively late departure!  

Whortle had spent 6 weeks in Spain but by 30 August he had began to move on. He had already moved 200km (136 miles) south, and spent the day 32km (20 miles) NW of Benidorm. From here he moved due south and by the morning of 1 September he was 1650km (1026 miles) further on in southern Algeria.  

Over the next 18 hours he continued for a further 775km (482 miles) before stopping early in the morning of 2 September close to the Niger river in central Mali (not yet displayed on the map), an area that will be nice and greeen at this time of year.  Whortle has crossed the desert in a more easterly direction than many of the other Cuckoos that took the south-westerly route through Spain and consequently will be further east when he completes his desert crossing – this will allow him to make up for lost time because if he continues in this direction he will not need to travel far east before catching the others up!

Whortle has moved north slightly from Linares de Mora and has been sending regular transmittions from a location near to Cantavieja, Spain. We are expecting him to move on shortly and make the crossing to Africa. 

Since the 30 July, Whortle has flown 135km (83 miles) south within Spain, leaving the area he had been in for two weeks, and is now close to Linares de Mora in Teruel. Could he be getting ready to continue to Africa soon?

On 23 July, Whortle revealed which route he had chosen to follow by heading from his location in France to Spain. He is the second of our Devon Cuckoos to take this route  This is really interesting as before this, only East Anglian birds had been found to take this route. The other two Devon Cuckoos, Dart and Tor, have visited the islands Mallorca and Corsica on their way south. 

Whortle has now been in the area of the southern French Alps for four days and is 5km (3.5 miles) north-west of Meailles. He is 24km (14 miles) west of David (one of the Welsh Cuckoos from 2012). These two birds were only 9.5km (6 miles) apart at their brief stopover point in northern Italy. It will be interesting to see where they both go from here.

Whortle looks like he ventured in to the Po Valley in Italy in the early hours of 4 July, travelling 85km (53 miles) in a north-easterly direction from his location in the corner of France. A series of transmissions show him moving around the area near Piampaludo over several hours but two days later he was retracing his steps and returned back to his last location in France. Perhaps he was unable to find a good source of food and so retreated back to the last good feeding site? 

On the evening of 26 June another of our Devon Cuckoos made his move, having been in Devon in the late evening, just 48 hours later he had travelled 1030km ( 640 miles) to the south-east of France, transmitting his location from there on the evening of 28 June! He appeared to be in hilly landscape close to the communes of Le Beaucet and Venasque in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Further signals received yesterday evening show that he continued onwards a further 206km (128 miles) and is now close to the Italian border, in the extreme south-east corner of France, to the east of Tende in the Mercantour National Park within the Maritime Alps. This makes him the seventh tagged Cuckoo to depart the UK. He is the third of the Devon Cuckoos to leave - all are currently in France but they are currently in very different areas, with Tor in the north-east and Ryder in the north-west.

Whortle was caught very early on the 14 May at Cold East Cross, between Widdecombe-in-the-Moor and Ashburton, East Dartmoor, and was filmed by BBC Inside Out SW (due to be shown in September). He has spent most of his time since being tagged in the same area and the latest locations received this morning (12 June) place him very close to where he was trapped.