The last few weeks have been quiet and for those who had not yet completed their desert crossings, it looks like the challenging conditions have claimed more of our tagged Cuckoos.

Unfortunately no further signals have been received from Knepp. From the temperature data and movements at the time, he was alive on 12 July, when we last heard from his tag. Though the battery charge had been low for a few days, there is no evidence of long term battery decline so we can't be sure what has happened to him - either he, or the tag, appear to have died suddenly. 

Lambert, who was still in France, has not moved on south and signals on 21 August showed high temperature fluctuations across the day, indicating the bird's body temperature and behaviour were not regulating it. We've heard nothing since then, and his tags battery charge had suddenly dipped, all of which leads us to believe he has likely died.

Unfortunately the challenging conditions have also impacted on Nussey who has already attempted two trips to Africa and retreated to Europe.  Abnormally low temperatures were received at the time of the last messages (16 August), having previously been fine. He was not migrating at that time, so the low temperatures were not due to high altitude, and the battery was also much lower than previously, further suggesting he was dead.

The droughts and exceptionally high temperatures in Europe appear to have proved difficult for our Cuckoos this year, however the five south of the Sahara are still regularly transmitting. Valentine, PJ, Carlton II and Tennysons' tags have all sent signals during September and the last signals received from Senan's tag were at the end of August and show him still in Burkina Faso.

We are still receiving signals from Lambert's tag showing that he is 48 km (30 miles) north west of Montpelier. Hopefully we'll see him on the move in the next few days to reassure us that all is well with Lambert. 

An update from Lambert's tag late in the afternoon of July 13 showed that he had flown 420 km (262 miles) south east and was close to Notre-Dame-de-la-Rouviere in southern France. He has since settled a couple of miles east of that location, near the small village of Valniere in the Cevennes National Park. He is 53 Km (33 miles) north of Montpelier and is in the same location that he stopped in last year. Last year he left this location on July 25 so we don't expect him to hang around for long. 

Knepp Cuckoo Lambert has pushed a little further South and is now 11 Km (7 miles) south of the town of Blois. He is currently on a similar path to his southward migration last year. If he continues to follow this path we can expect him to make his next stop in the south of France. 

Lambert has successfully crossed the English Channel. He appears to have crossed almost due south of his Sussex breeding area and flown over 125km (77 miles) of open water. He is currently 117km (72 miles) south of the Normandy coast and in farmland to the west of Verneuil-sur-Avre. 

During the evening of 17 June we received a series of locations from Lambert's tag that showed he was over the English Channel, 16km (10 miles) offshore of Brighton. We will have to wait until the evening of 19 June to see how far he has travelled. Fingers crossed he will have made landfall in France.

Lambert has been back in the UK for almost a month and during this time he has been moving around the Knepp Estate area. He has ranged as far north as Southwater and as far south as Ashington. In the last week he has spent quite a bit of time in the area between Whitehall and Dial Post.

An update received from Lambert's tag at 04:50 this morning showed that Lambert had succesfully covered the remaining 498 Km (309 miles) from his last location near Mazieres-en-Gatine in west central France to his breeding grounds in Sussex. Lambert is one of three Cuckoos tagged on the Knepp Estate.

Updates received from Lambert's tag late yesterday afternoon show that he has flown 400 Km (249 miles) north from his last location in southern Spain to the La Rioja province of northern Spain, near the González-Lacasa Reservoir. 

An update received from Lambert's tag this morning shows that he has crossed from northern Algeria into southern Spain. He is currently on the northern edge of the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park, the largest protected area in Spain. Lambert has another 1,380 Km (857 miles) to go before he can join fellow Cuckoo Knepp back on the Knepp Estate in Sussex where he was tagged. 

Lambert began his desert crossing around 9.00am on 19 April and 24 hours later was 1,295km (805 miles) into the crossing and still going. By 9.00am on 21 April he had made it and was in northeastern Algeria and on the northern edge of the desert. His crossing speed was 68kph (42mph). He is currently in farmland to the south of the town of Chettouane Belaila.

Lambert really isn't hanging around. During the last week he has moved a further 590km (367 miles) west, across Ghana and into Ivory Coast. He is currently close to the east bank of the River Comoe and west of the town of Dalaware.

A couple of high-quality locations received during the early morning of 4 April show that Lambert didn't hang around in Nigeria. In the last few days he has headed west out of Nigeria, across Benin and into Togo. He is currently just to the south of the village of Adedakope and in the Tchiela Monata Forest and close to the Amou River. During this movement he has flown 704 km (437 miles).

Lambert has flown 643 Km (400 miles) north west from Cameroon to south-eastern Nigeria. He is now 180 km (111 miles) South of another Knepp Cuckoo, Raymond who is also in Nigeria. 

We haven't heard from Lambert since 7 March but at the time the information from his tag shows he was alive. However, the battery charge was quite low. At the time he was still in southern Congo but it will be interesting to see if he pops up further north and west, hopefully once his tag recieves more charge.

Lambert is still our most southerly tagged Cuckoo but he has begun to move north. In the early hours of 3 March his tag placed him in southern Congo, 366km (228 miles) north and east of his coastal stopover location in Angola.

We are receiving some good quality locations from Lambert’s tag that show he is alive and moving around the area of coastal Angola he has been in for the last three weeks.

Lambert seems settled in Angola, for now, but it might not be too long before he begins the long journey back. Currently our most southerly Cuckoo, Lambert is just under 3,500km (just over 2,000 miles) behind Selborne who is leading the pack and is in Guinea, West Africa.

Lambert has moved 134km (83 miles) to the north and west and is currently just to the south of the coastal town of Soyo, Angola. He is in an area of forest that another of our tagged Cuckoos, Bowie, used a month ago.

During the evening of 29 January we received two locations that show Lambert hasn't moved but is alive and well.

We haven't heard anything from Lambert's tag since the beginning of January. However, at that time the temperature readings show that he was alive although the battery charge on the tag was low. We have our fingers crossed that when Lambert leaves the rainforest his tag will begin charging and we will receive more locations.

Lambert seems settled in the area of forest close to Quimal, Angola, although he has moved a short distance north and east in the last few days.

During the last two weeks Lambert has moved south in the area of forest to the east of N'zeto, Angola. He is now 30km (18 miles) south of his previous location and only 12km (7.5 miles) from Larry, another of our tagged Cuckoos.

Lambert has moves south from the very northeast corner of Angola and is now in an area of forest 130km (81 miles) southeast of Santo Antonio do Zaire.

Lambert has left Congo and is now in Angola. His movement a couple of days ago saw him fly 715km (444 miles) south and west. He is currently right in the northwest corner of the country and close to the coastal town of Santo Antonio do Zaire.

Having spent around a week in northeast Congo Lambert moved south and east, flying 400km (250 miles) to eastern, central Congo and close to the northern edge of the Teke Plateau. He is currently in an area of dense rainforest.

Since beginning his journey east, Lambert hasn't hung around. Having arrived in southwest Nigeria on 27 September he only stayed for three days. From here he moved to Cameroon for a five day stopover and then on to Congo. During this time he has flown over 1,300km (800 miles), through Nigeria, Cameroon and Central African Republic to get to Congo. He is currently in an area of very dense rainforest in the northwest corner of the country.

Having been one of our most westerly Cuckoos since his arrival in West Africa at the beginning of August, Lambert is now one of our most easterly. From his location in Guinea, only nine days ago, he has travelled 1,987km (1,234 miles) east, passing through Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin and into Nigeria. He is to the north of the River Niger and to the southwest of Duma.

A single location received from Lambert's tag during the evening of 21 August shows that he has moved out of Senegal and headed east into Guinea, moving through Guinea-Bissau on the way. There is now only one tagged Cuckoo further west than Lambert, and this is Sherwood. We expect both of them to move east during the next couple of weeks.

Lambert's tag shows he has made it across the desert and is in Senegal. His crossing coincided with strong easterly winds and it looks like these pushed him quite a way west. He is currently 50km (30 miles) from the Senegal coast and just to the north of the Saloum River. He is the furthest west we have seen any of our Cuckoos. 

Around 5.30am on 30 July, we received the first of four locations from Lambert's tag that showed he was actively crossing the Sahara. The last location received at just after 7am showed he was in northwestern Mauritania and about a third of the way across the desert; this should show on his map when it updates tomorrow. We will have to wait until breakfast on 1 August to see if he has made it across. There are fairly stiff north-easterly winds in this part of the desert and Lambert does seem to be drifting west towards Western Sahara. It will be interesting to see just how far west he is on completing the crossing.

We were getting quite concerned about Lambert. He didn't move about very much at his stopover site in southern France and we have lost Cuckoos in this area before. However, late on the evening of 25 July Lambert popped up in northeast Morocco, on the edge of the Tazekka National Park, an area of wooded mountains in the Middle Atlas. This was a surprise to us as we thought that Lambert would take the eastern route through Italy, not the western route.

Lambert didn't stay long in central France. On 15 June we received locations from his tag that showed he had moved south and was 64km (39 miles) from the Mediterranean, north of Montpellier. He has travelled 806km (500 miles) since leaving the Knepp Estate in Sussex. His locations show that he is moving around wooded hillsides close to Notre-Dame-de-la-Rouviere. It will be interesting to see if he stays here or moves to the Po Valley in Northern Italy, which is a known stopover site for some of our Cuckoos.

A series of locations from Lambert's tag on Sunday put him 480km (300 miles) south east of his tagging location in Sussex. He is currently the furthest south of all of our tagged Cuckoos and is in woodland between Mezieres-en-Brenne and Chateauroux in northern central France.

Lambert is currently in the northern part of the Knepp Estate, presumably still looking for female Cuckoos.