We were hopeful that when, and if, Disco Tony's tag burst back into life it would show that he had successfully crossed the Sahara. However, a series of poor locations received on 4 October show that he is still in southern France and we have to conclude that we have lost him. Last year he left northern Italy on 19 August and was by Lake Chad by the end of the month. Even though he was running very late this year he wasn't the only one, and we hoped that he still might be OK but it doesn't seem to be the case and we have to say a very sad goodbye to Disco Tony.

We still have no further news of Disco Tony. There is a slim chance that his tag will still spring back into life, and we have our fingers crossed that this will be the case.

We have lost contact with Disco Tony and at this stage it looks like his tag might have failed. Only time will tell if it bursts into life again. We have 'lost' Cuckoos for up to six weeks, only for their tags to start transmitting again, hopefully this will be the case with Disco Tony's tag.

We haven't heard from Disco Tony's tag since 12 August, when a poor quality location showed that he was still in southern France.We haven't received a good quality location from Disco Tony since he arrived in southern France in mid-July, which suggests there might be an issue with his tag. We wouldn't be surprised if he dosen't pop-up somewhere further south - only time will tell.

Disco Tony has headed south and is currently northeast of Montpellier on the French Mediterranean coast. Looking at his previous southerly migration we expect him to head east into northern Italy any day now.

Despite having to run the gauntlett of some pretty heavy rainfall, Disco Tony is not hanging around. Locations received from his tag during the afternoon of 17 June showed that he had left Hampshire and crossed the Channel. He is currently in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France on the outskirts of Bailly-aux-Forges, and hopefully enjoying a massive improvement in the weather. It is currently 29 degrees C in Bailly-aux-Forges.

Around breakfast time on 15 June, a location received from Disco Tony showed that he had left Wales and was on his way to Africa.The location put him in Hampshire, 2km (1.2 miles) north of Standon, just west of Winchester. It is good to see him at the very start of his long journey south.

Two locations received from Disco Tony's tag at dusk on the 8 May showed that he was back in Wales and was in an area of woodland just to the south of Devil's Bridge.

Since our last update we've received a new transmission from Disco Tony's tag placing him in Northern Spain. He has travelled 350 miles north and his now between Santander and Gijon in the north of Spain. 

After a few uncertain days, we are relieved to report that Disco Tony has made it across the Sahara and on into Spain. He made a couple of stops during his desert crossing which had us worried but recent data received from his tag now place him just south of the Sierra Morena mountains in Andalusia, approximately 50 miles south of David's current location.

We 'lost' Disco Tony on 13 March, and whilst we were not too concerned we do get a little anxious when this happens. So, it is good to be able to report that Disco Tony is back and on his way home. A series of locations received around breakfast on 17 April show him western Algeria, around 100km (60 miles) south of the Moroccan border. We don't expect him to hang around here as he hasn't quite finished crossing the desert.

We haven't heard from Disco Tony since 13 March, however, at this stage we are not too concerned. Our tagged Cuckoos can often disappear at this stage in the journey, only to pop-up again at a later date. It might be that Disco Tony moved into deep cover to prepare for his journey west. He could well reappear in the next week in West Africa and we have our fingers crossed that he does.

A good location received from Disco Tony on 13 March showed that he was still in Central African Republic but had moved 78km (48 miles) north, presumably in search of a better feeding area. It may not ne too long before he begins to head west.

We haven't heard from Disco Tony for over seven weeks but just after lunch on 4 March he popped back up. He is currently in Central African Republic on the northern edge of the Congo rainforest and on the first leg of his journey back to Wales.

We still haven't heard from Disco Tony. Whilst we are a little concerned there is every chance that he will pop back up, just as David has done after a six week absence. We hope that Disco Tony is in deeper cover preparing for his northward journey and that when he moves out into better light, his tag charges and he is picked up again.

We haven't heard from Disco Tony since 13 January but at that time he had moved north back into Gabon, around 60km (35 miles) north-east of his previous location in Gabon.

In the last few days of November Disco Tony headed south into Congo, he is currently 237km (148 miles) south west of his previous position in Gabon. Might this be his final mid-winter location or will he move again? Only time will tell.

As predicted, Disco Tony has continued his journey south. On the 11 November we recieved a series of confusing locations for him, some good, some poor. When all this information had been analysed he was put firmly in Gabon, 840km (520 miles) south east of his last location in Cameroon.

A location received from Disco Tony on 4 November placed him on the northern edge of the rainforest, in Cameroon. We would expect him to move further south into the rainforest during the next few weeks.

Disco Tony has made an interesting and unprecedented movement over the past week, flying almost 400 miles west from Chad into Nigeria. Only Dudley is further west. We will have to wait to see how long he spends here and where he goes to next.   

Disco Tony is the latest our of tagged Cuckoos to reach Africa and attempt the desert crossing.

The last good signals received prior to this were from early August, and located him to the west of Milan, Italy in the area which has been afffected by recent droughts.  Poor signals on the 18 August indicated he had left Italy and travelled 1765km (1100 miles), crossing over the sea to Africa to reach northern Libya.  Since then he has covered a further 2120km (1320 miles) to reach central Chad. He is now south of the Sahara and hopefully will find suitable conditions to recover from this epic trip. Other Cuckoos have struggled to prepare successfully for the challenge given the conditions in Italy so we hope that Disco Tony has had more success and can continue onwards shortly.

We hadn't received signals for several weeks from Disco Tony, who last transmitted from France, so it was nice to see some new transmissions from him this weekend.  These revealed he had moved on and was in the Po Valley, a known stopover site for some of our Cuckoos before they continue on south, in Italy.  

146760 is the final Cuckoo to have been named and has been called Disco Tony. The Welsh bog in which he was tagged was a particularly challenging environment to work in, being characterised by high tussocky grass. Tony Cross has been part of the team in Wales since the first bird was tagged there in 2012. On capturing this Cuckoo, Tony had to do a hopping, balancing, disco dance of a run to retrieve it. To honour Tony’s commitment to the project, and of course his disco antics, Disco Tony seemed appropriate.

Cuckoo 146760 is currently unnamed but this could change in the very near future. 146760 has continued south and is currently in southern France, close to Nimes. 

Nine Cuckoos (plus Hennah whose tag has still not sent a good quality location) have now left the UK and seven of these (plus Hennah) are currently in France. The most recent three to have transmitted from France are new Welsh Cuckoo 146760, and Sherwood Cuckoos Jake and Dudley. Jake is currently in Burgundy, while 146760 is further south in the Auvergne region and Dudley is even further south in Toulouse.

It's interesting to note that Dudley left about a week later this year compared to 2014 while Jake left two weeks earlier.