We haven't received any updates from Michael's tag since 7 August, when he was in southern France.

At that time he was close to the town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.

We are not certain whether Michael perished or his tag failed but sadly it is now very unlikely we will hear anything further from him. 

Having moved north in Spain, Michael has now flown a further 65 km (40 miles) north, taking him back over the border into France.

He is now a few miles north of the town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.

After almost two weeks on the edge of the Tinença de Benifassà Natural Park, in the autonomous community of Valencia in eastern Spain, Michael has turned north.

Over the last few days he has flown 265 km (165 miles) north through Spain and is now on the northern shores of the Yesa Resevoir on the Aragon River in the province of Zaragoza.

We have seen our tagged Cuckoos circle back north before. It may well be that Michael felt the need to move to try to find richer feeding grounds before embarking on the next stage of his journey. 

Since our last update Michael has flown 271 km (169 miles) south west from his last location in southern France to a new location in Spain.

He is now on the edge of the Tinença de Benifassà Natural Park, a sparsely populated mountainous area in the autonomous community of Valencia. 

Michael has flown 287 km (178 miles) south west into the south eastern corner of France. He is just south of the 2,784 m (9,134 ft) mountain, Canigó, in the Pyrenees.

Michael has flown 47 km (30 miles) from his last location and is now in the countryside surrounding Saint-Andéol-de-Berg in the Ardèche department of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southern France.

He is keeping us guessing about whether he will take the easterly route through Italy or the westerly route via Spain! 

New updates received from Michael's tag on Saturday morning showed that he had flown 600 km (374 miles) south west from Germany into south eastern France.

By the early hours of this morning (Monday 10 June) he had flown a further 162 km (100 miles) south west and was close to the town of Navacelles in the Gard department of southern France.

Cuckoo Michael has finally set off on his migration and has flown 493 km (306 miles) south-east over the Channel. He then flew along the Belgian-Netherlands border to Germany.

Between 06:30 and 09:30 this morning, Wednesday 5 July, he was in the countryside just north of Mogendorf in Westerwaldkreis district, Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany. 

Cuckoo Michael was tagged on Loddon Common in the Norfolk Broads, and after retrieving him from the nets, the team made the exciting discovery that he was already fitted with a BTO ring. We soon discovered that he had been ringed in May 2019 at Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire. We were touched to discover that the ringer was the late Michael Holdsworth, a member of the Wicken Fen Ringing Group and a wonderfully supportive BTO member who sadly passed away unexpectedly in 2021.

An anonymous donor has kindly agreed for us to name this bird Michael in his memory. Having been instrumental in our Spotted Flycatcher tracking work, Michael would have been thrilled to know that the Cuckoo he had ringed had been recaught and that we would be tracking his movements from now on. Since being tagged, Michael has remained at his breeding grounds on Loddon Common.