We continue to receive updates from Daniel's tag but unfortunately the updates show him stranded in the desert in Chad, some 330km north of Lake Chad. It is very unlikely that Daniel could survive for such a long time here so we have to conclude that he has sadly perished. Since being tagged in June 2021, Daniel has provided us with valuable data, including a full loop migration from his breeding grounds in Wales to his wintering grounds in Cameroon and back again.   

Over the last few days Daniel has made his next big move south, leaving southern Europe and entering Africa. Last year Daniel remained in northern Italy until 12 August when he crossed the Sahara to arrive in eastern Mali where he remained until 29 August when he moved east into southern Niger. This year his journey took him from southern France to southern Sardinia where he spent some time in the Campanasissa Cadelano Forestry. He then proceeded south over the Sahara and by yesterday morning (7 August) had reached south eastern Niger. New updates received this morning show that he hasn't moved far overnight and he is some 320km north east of Lake Chad. Given that there seems to be little of use to a Cuckoo in this area we will be anxiously awaiting further updates from Daniel's tag. 

Having reached northern Italy, Daniel has flown 128km (80 miles) north west back into southern France. He is now on the lower slopes of Mont Brequin in the Vanoise Massif mountain range of the Western Alps. Daniel made his move to Africa on 12 August last year so he may linger in France/Italy a couple more weeks yet. 

A few lower quality locations suggest that Daniel has progressed south east through France over the last few days, reaching Lyon by Tuesday morning. He has since crossed the Alps into northern Italy and by 06:30 this morning was nearing the town of Alba in the Piedmont region of Italy. Last year he arrived in northern Italy on 7th July and remained here, close to the town of Garlasco in Lombardy until 12th August when he crossed the Sahara. 

Overnight Daniel has left the UK and arrived in France. He has flown 410km (255 miles) to his new location close to Dourdan in the Essonne department in Île-de-France, approximately 47km (30 miles) south west of Paris. 

Daniel has finally departed his breeding grounds at Lake Vyrnwy and flown 217km (135 miles) south east to the fine county of Bedfordshire. He spent a couple of hours Tuesday evening in and around the village of Marston Moreteyne - did anyone see or hear him? By 10pm on Tuesday evening he was near Langford, just south of Biggleswade. It'll be interesting to see where he travels to next. 

Having spent the last week or so visiting the Llanymynech area, Daniel has flown the 29km (18 miles) west, back to his breeding grounds on the southern shore of Lake Vyrnwy. Perhaps he was struggling to find a good enough food supply and so returned to an area that he was familiar with and could be more confident would hold the food supply that he needs. 

Further updates that arrived yesterday morning showed that Daniel had completed his journey back to his breeding grounds at Lake Vyrnwy. Having had such a long period during the winter when we received no updates from his tag, we are delighted that not only did his tag come back to life but that he has successfully completed his migration. 

Daniel has flown 843 km (524 miles) since our last update, taking him from Central France to mid Wales. A new update received early this morning showed that he was just north of Welshpool, just 30 km (18.6 miles) from his tagging location on the shores of Lake Vyrnwy. He left his breeding grounds on 3 July last year so we expect him to stay for around 8 weeks. So if you are visiting RSPB's wonderful Lake Vyrnwy reserve or the surrounding area over the next couple of months, listen out for Cuckoo Daniel!

We last heard from Daniel on the evening of 2 May, by which time he was 50 km (31 miles) NW of Clermont-Ferrand in Central France. 

We were delighted to receive further updates from Daniel's tag last night showing that he has flown 924 km (574 miles) north-north west from his last location on Sicily. At around 10pm last night he was close to the fishing village of Camogli on the Portofino peninsula approximately 10 miles east of Genoa. He is now slightly further north than Worcestershire Cuckoo Calypso. Might he beat Calypso, Victor II and JAC back to the UK? 

As we had not heard from Cuckoo Daniel since mid March when he was in Cameroon, and our other Cuckoos were making good progress towards the UK we were expecting to have to announce that we had lost him. However, we received some signals from Daniel's tag at 04:46 this morning showing that he is in Sicily, 3,780 km (2,347 miles) from his last know location! He is in the south eastern corner of the island, 18km east of the city of Gela. Hopefully this marks the return of regular updates from Daniel's tag.

We received some weak signals from Daniel's tag on Tuesday morning suggesting that he has flown 410 km (254 miles) south from Central African Republic into the south eastern corner of Cameroon. He is now at the southern edge of Boumba Bek National Park.  

We were beginning to think that we might have heard the last from Daniel as he has remained a long way north of the rest of the pack. He has remained in Chad since arriving there on 1st September. However, a couple of new signals received over the last few days show him 743 km (462 miles) south of his last location in Chad. This movement means that Daniel is now in western Central African Republic. Will he push further south and join the others in the Congo basin? Hopefully we'll find out over the next week or two. 

Daniel left south eastern Mali on Friday and by Sunday evening he was in southern Niger. He didn't linger there long and by the early hours of this morning (1 September) he had flown on, clipping the north eastern corner of Nigeria and passing Lake Chad before arriving in Chad. He is now on the shores of Lake Fitri, approximately 260 Km (161 miles) east of the capital N'Djamena.   

The latest updates received from Daniel's tag show him in the south eastern corner of Mali. He was heading south towards Niger and was a little north of the Ansongo Giraffe Reserve. 

Welsh Cuckoo Daniel arrived in northern Italy on 8 July where he stayed for several weeks. An update received on 10 August showed him on or over Sardinia in the Mediterranean. By the early hours of this morning (Friday 13 August), he had flown 2,190 Km (1,360 miles) south over the Sahara and had just crossed the border from Algeria into Niger. Over the next few hours he continued south west, flying to the west of the Air mountains. By 10:49 this morning he was in the far north western corner of Niger, approximately 400km (250 miles) north of Victor II and PJ. 

Updates received from Daniel's tag over the last 48 hours show that he has flown 420 km (261 miles) from his last position in southern France, over the Alps and into northern Italy. He has taken up temporary residence close to ENI's Sannazzaro de’ Burgond oil and gas refinery, about 45 km southwest of Milan. He is exploring the farmland along the Agogna River. It'll be interesting to see whether Daniel follows Ellis to Rome. 

Cuckoo Daniel is on the move! Over the last few days he has flown 908 km (565 miles) from his last location on the shores of Lake Vyrnwy and by 9pm on Saturday evening was at a new location in the Allier department of central France. He is now close to the town of Chatel-Montagne in the foothills of the Bourbonnais mountains. It will be very interesting to see whether he crosses to Africa via Spain, Italy or neither! 

The first bird caught during this catching session was a female Cuckoo, followed by a Meadow Pipit, these were ringed and let go. After a long wait a male Cuckoo came flying in followed by another Meadow Pipit and swiftly followed by another male Cuckoo – they are like buses! Both Cuckoos were within the weight range required for tagging but we only had one tag left to fit. Since being tagged, Daniel has remained close to his tagging location.

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.