We are sorry to report that we have lost Worcestershire Cuckoo Calypso. Our last good quality signal from Calypso's tag was received on 24 July when he was in northern Italy and although we have had a couple of signals since ,they have been low quality and from the same location. Having reviewed the diagnostic data from the tag we could see that between 26 & 28 July, the battery charge dropped substantially and the temperature reading dropped by 5C, neither of these are good signs. It also seems strange that his last locations were in the middle of an urban area when there is so much apparently suitable natural habitat surrounding it. All of this means that sadly  it looks like the end of the road for Calypso, but he has given us some excellent data including of course a complete migration cycle between Worcestershire and the Congo Basin. 

Calypso has flown 25km (16 miles) north east and is now close to the town of Borgomanero in the Piedmont region. 

Over the last few days Calypso has left southern France and flown 348km (216 miles) to northern Italy. He is now a few miles south of the town of Cossato in the north western part of Piedmont. 

Since our last update Calypso has flown 612km (380 miles) south to reach the coast of the South of France. He has spent the last few days in the woods and farmland to the north of Fos-sur-Mer, approximately 37km north west of Marseille.

Calypso spent most of Saturday exploring the area around Lordswood near Chatham in Kent. He then headed south east and by 10pm was over the Channel. By yesterday evening he had reached the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. He is just north of the town of La Ferte-Gaucher, 70km east of Paris. 

New updates from Calypso's tag last night showed that he was within a stone's throw of his tagging location at Wildgoose nature reserve in Worcestershire. He was tagged here on 19 May 2021 and stayed until 23 June so we expect him to remain on site for the next six weeks or so. Bravo Calypso!

Calypso spent a few days on the Island of Oléron off the west coast of France but new updates that came in between 07:50 and 08:00 yesterday morning showed him 630 km (390 miles) north, passing to the west of Chippenham. His last update which arrived at lunchtime yesterday showed him passing to the west of Tewkesbury. Another 20km and he'll be back at Wild Goose Nature Reserve in Worcestershire where he was tagged on 19 May 2021.

Calypso has had a busy morning, flying approximately 467 km (290 miles) from his last location in northern Spain, across the Bay of Biscay to the western coast of France. He is now on the Island of Oleron due west of Rochefort. The Moeze Oleron nature reserve on and around the island is a protected area for migratory birds so Calypso has chosen a great place to stop. 

Calypso didn't stop for long on the Costa del Sol, he has flown 295 km (184 miles) north and has reached Extramadura. He is now close to the Orellan Reservoir and the internationally important Sierra de Pela wetlands. He is now ahead of JAC and Daniel and just behind Victor II. 

Calypso has arrived in Europe having crossed the Straits of Gibraltar over the weekend. He is now close to San Pedro de Alcantara, approximately 10 km west of Marbella on the Coast del Sol.

Calypso has continued his progress north and new updates received early this morning (18 April) show that he has reached northern Morocco. He is now in the the Fès-Meknès region of Morocco, approximately 195 Km south of the Mediterranean coast. 

Calypso is in the Saoura Valley which seperates the sand dunes of the Grand Erg Occidental area of the Sahara to the east from the rocky hills of the Ougarta Range to the west. With his crossing of the Sahara almost complete, we will hopefully see that he has safely reached northern Morocco or Algeria soon.

Calypso is making his move and has flown 2,124 Km (1,319 miles) north from his stop-over site in Ivory Coast. By 23:18 last night (13 April) he was 75 Km south of the desert town of Reggane, central Algeria. He is crossing the Tanezrouft, a vast barren plain which is one of the driest and most desolate parts of the Sahara. As he progresses north Calypso may take advantage of a series of oases between Reggane and the town of Adrar, 150 Km to the north.

Worcestershire Cuckoo Calypso has been on the move, covering 1,649km (1,022 miles) from Cameroon to Ivory Coast where he joins JAC, Victor II and PJ.

A new update received late yesterday afternoon shows that Calypso has flown 147km (91 miles) west within Cameroon and is now in the centre of the Mpem and Djim National Park. This park covers approximately 975km2 and is made up of a mosaic of closed-canopy forest, savannah grasslands, and gallery forests forming a transition zone between the rainforests to the south and the savanna to the north. Over 76 species of mammal have been recorded here including Honey Badger, Giant Pangolin and Aardvark. Calypso has arrived just at the start of the short rainy season which lasts until the end of June. 

Worcestershire Cuckoo Calypso has just started his journey back from Africa. Having been deep in the Congo basin for the last few months, new updates received in the early hours of this morning show that he has flown 622km (387 miles) north from Congo to Cameroon. He is now in eastern Cameroon, approximately 112km (70 miles) north of the town of Bertoua. We expect that he will begin moving into west Africa next where he will feed up before attempting to cross the Sahara.   

Over the last few days Calypso has completed a 965 km (600 mile) journey south east from Nigeria to the Republic of the Congo. He is now in the Western Cuvette department in the western part of the Republic of the Congo.

New updates received beteen 18:00 and 21:30 last night (Sunday 26 September) show that Calypso has flown 470 Km (292 miles) south east and is close to the Gashaka-Gumpti National park in eastern Nigeria, near the border with Cameroon. Cuckoos AJ and Ellis are approximately 1,200 Km (755 miles) south east of him in the Congo Basin. 

Over the last 24 hours Calpyso has flown 10 km south west within the Kwiabana Game Reserve in the south of Zamfara state, Nigeria. An ecological survey of this area published in 1981 found big numbers of large mammals, particularly Elephants, Roan Antelopes, Hartebeest and Buffalo, as well as smaller mammals like Warthog, Baboon, Ardvark, Baboons, Green Monkeys and Porcupines. The recommendation of that study was to protect the area from illegal hunting and grazing to create an area with great potential for game viewing and tourism. It would be interesting to know how the reserve has fared since 1981. 

New updates from Calypso arrived between 04:34 and 07:22 this morning showing that he has flown a further 586 km (364 miles) to complete his crossing of the Sahara. In total he has covered 2,784km (1,730 miles) since leaving from northern Tunisia and arriving at his current location in northern Nigeria. He is now in an area of Guinea Savanna close to the Kwiambana Game Reserve in the Zamfara region of north western Nigeria. He is 381Km (237 miles) west of Cuckoo Ellis who is also in northern Nigeria. 

New updates received at around 19:00 yesterday evening (Saturday 17 July) showed that Calypso had flown 1,867 km (1,160 miles) south and had reached the western edge of the Air mountains in Niger. The highest peak of this range is Mont Idoukal-n-Taghès at 2022 m / 6633 ft. By 03:30 this morning (Sunday 18 July) Calypso had flown a further 325 km (202 miles) south and was looking set to join Cuckoo Ellis in Nigeria. Hopefully when we next hear from him he will have successfully completed his desert crossing. 

Having been hanging out near Istres since 28 June, Calypso has finally made another move. New updates that arrived at around 5pm yesterday showed that he had crossed the Mediterranean, flying 785 km (487 miles) from France to northern Tunisia. By 10 pm last night he was 95 km (60 miles) further south, on farmland near the town of Al Arusah, 80Km (50 miles) south west of Tunis. 

Over the last few days Calypso has flown 745 km (464 miles) from his last location near Caen in Normandy to the south of France. He made the journey in two stages, first flying 565 km (351 miles) to stop-over briefly close to the village of Grandrieu in the Lozère department in southern France. The next day (Sunday 27th June) he was on the move again, flying a further 181 km (113 miles) south east to his current location in the outskirts of the city of Istres. Will he cross to northern Africa from here or turn west over Spain? Stay tuned for the next update to find out!

Calypso has safely crossed the English Channel and by 04:13 yesterday morning he had arrived in Normandy. In the hours since has been exploring the area between the villages of Mouen and La Valette, just west of Caen.

Calypso was caught and tagged at the fantastic Wildgoose Rural Training and Nature Reserve where our tagging team received a very warm welcome. He is currently still at his tagging site.

After being unable to tag any Cuckoos in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions, we are delighted to be able to introduce eleven new Cuckoos this year!

The tagging teams faced some very early starts as usual to tag the Cuckoos, but they were rewarded with birds who were interested enough in the female lure to be caught, weighed and tagged (with the exception of a location near Loch Katrine where there were a number of female Cuckoos around, making our lure less convincing!).

Some of these newly-tagged birds have already begun their migration south, with one in France, one in the Netherlands and one of the Scottish birds is already down in Essex.

Keep an eye on the individual birds' blogs for updates on their progress.