My Cuckoo back home.

The latest bulletin from the BTO on my Cuckoo, JAC.

  JAC has become our third tagged bird to arrive back in the UK. New updates that came in at around 6am this morning show that JAC has flown the remaining 582 km (362 miles) from France back to his breeding grounds in North Wales. The most recent update showed that he was within a mile of his tagging location. So, if over the next few weeks you find yourself in the World's End area of Denbighshire, between Llangollen and Wrexham, be sure to listen out for a Cuckoo, it might just be JAC!

 

 

 The latest bulletin on my Cuckoo JAC, one of three moving north.

Leading this trio at the moment is Llangollen Cuckoo JAC. Updates received at around midnight showed him approximately 88 km (55 miles) off the coast of France, due west of the seaside town of Arcachon. A single lower-quality transmission received at 6am this morning suggests that JAC has flown a further 377 km (235 miles) north, completing his crossing of the Bay of Biscay. He was close to the commune of Treal in the Morbihan department of Brittany. We will have to await further updates to be certain of his new location.

My Cuckoo JAC nears home.

 

 

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After crossing the Sahara, JAC didn't hang around for long in Morocco. By yesterday afternoon he was on the move again, crossing the Mediterranean. At 19:00 last night he was close to Berja in Andalusia, southern Spain. He pressed on and by 21:55 last night he was in the Sierra de Baza mountains approximately 20 Km south west of the city of Baza in Granada.

My Cuckoo crosses the Sahara

 

 My Cuckoo, JAC,   has at last stopped wandering around West Africa and turned towards home. The latest bulletin from BTO:-

The big mover over recent days has been Llangollen Cuckoo JAC. After completing his crossing of the Sahara, JAC has spent the last 24 hours in northern Morocco. He is now approximately 15 km east of the city of Nador, on farmland close to the shores of the Mar Chica lagoon. He is hopefully enjoying some good feeding to prepare him well for the next leg of his migration when he will cross the Mediterranean and visit Spain and France.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puzzling Cuckoo moves.

   BTO have just issued a bulletin on the movements of its tagged Cuckoos in Africa including mine, JAC.

Llangollen Cuckoo JAC has been giving us the run around, an erroneous signal received a couple of weeks ago suggested he had already flown from his wintering grounds in the Congo Basin directly to Ivory Coast. The next signal we received however showed him back east in Cameroon. Over the past week we have received several high quality signals that show that JAC has now made his way to Ivory Coast, albeit at a more leisurely pace than we originally thought! JAC is now in eastern Ivory Coast approximately 107km (66 miles) north east of the capital Yamoussoukro and 89km east of Cuckoo PJ.

My Rooks.

 Seven Rooks nests being guarded.

 The Horse Chestnut tree outside my bedroom window now holds seven conpleted Rooks nests which are jealously guarded as birds from the trees at the back of the house attempt to steal sticks for their own nests. These birds have now realised that the sticks dropped over the drive and path might be usefull for their own nests and are taking them away, the first time I have seen this behaviour. Their own nests are not nearly as advanced, some birds don't even seem to have started building yet.

 My next door neighbours Rooks

 

My first butterfly of the year, a Brimstone, was seen further down the village yesterday.

My Cuckoo on the move.

A bulletin on my cuckoo JAC which has moved 1,900 miles westard on its return journey to Wales.

    JAC

 " Our  Cuckoos were all tagged in 2021 so are on their first tracked return migration. We last heard from Llangollen Cuckoo JAC on 20th January when he was deep in the Congo Basin. A new update received at 07:16 on Sunday morning suggest that he has moved 3,058km (1,900 miles) west to Ivory Coast. He is approximately 70km west of Lake Bandama in central Ivory Coast."

PJ knows this part of Central Ivory coast well, having stopped off here on previous northward migrations. We expect him to remain here for a few weeks before embarking on the next leg of his journey.  

  JAC's route.