Patch hadn't moved on northwards from his location in Spain like the other Cuckoos so our scientists took a look at the signals received recently. While we have been receiving signals, a closer look revealed that they were all lower quality signals, indicating that the tag may be on the ground. In addition the temperature associated with each transmission is now fluctuating with the external temperature, rather than remaining steadily at body temperature - as you would expect if the tag was still attached to a live Cuckoo. Together these two bits of information seem to suggest that we have lost Patch in Spain and he will sadly not be returning to his tagging ground in Scotland.

Patch was still in Senegal on 16 April but by the evening of the late afternoon of 17 April he was in Morocco in the southern region of Oued Ed-Dahab-Lagouira, part of the Western Sahara. From this westerly point, he changed direction and headed a further 1000km in a north-easterly direction (620 miles), flying over western Algeria by midday on 18 April and then heading north, towards the Middle Atlas mountains, and back in to Morocco by the morning of 19 April.

There must have been little time to rest as by morning on 21 April he was already 780km (485 miles) further north, having crossed the Mediteranean Sea to reach Valencia, Spain. In the five days since leaving Senegal, he covered at least 3440km (2140 miles)!

Patch is also on the move and embarking on his desert crossing, with the most recent signals revealing he has made it to eastern Senegal. David is also in Senegal but is much further west than Patch, and they are both much further west than any of the other Cuckoos. 

From Ghana, Patch continued onwards and by the evening of 31 March he was in Guinea, 1100km (690 miles) further north-west.  He is just to the west of the outer edge of the Guinea Highlands,  a densely forested mountainous plateau which runs from southeastern Guinea through to northern Sierra Leone and Liberia, and northwestern Ivory Coast. 

This new location means that he is in running for the most westerly Cuckoo, however, poor quality signals suggest that David continued on from Mali and could be in either Sierra Leone or Guinea, and possibly further west than Patch. We will have to await further signals to confirm his location. 

Poor quality signals, received on 27 March, from Patch's tag revealed that he had left Cameroon and was on the move.  Those signals located him in Togo and two days later further signals confirmed he had continued on in a westerly direction and was in Ghana. He is just west of Lake Volta, a place where several of our Cuckoos have stopped having moved into west Africa.  

By 15 March, Patch had travelled 435km (270 miles) further north within Cameroon. This new location means that he is now only 20km (12 miles) from fellow tagged Cuckoo, BB.  David is also relatively close, just 80km (50 miles) further south from Patch’s location.

Patch has also moved out of Congo, leaving his position near the two national parks, and is currently in south-east Cameroon, 260km (160 miles) further north, close to the edge of the Boumba Bek National Park.

Patch has left his position close to Ken within Gabon and since the 4 Feb has travelled 310km (190 miles). This has taken him over the border and into Congo. He is in the area between two National Parks and is roughly 50 miles (80km) further north than both Whortle and Derek.

Having left his last location in Congo, Patch travelled in a south-westerly direction, crossing over the border with Gabon on the 18 January. Transmissions received on the 25 January indicate he has remained  int his location.   

After his initial movement of 75km north-west of Lake Mai on 26 December, Patch has continued moving. He travelled a further 304km (189 miles) and as of 09.15 on 14 January, he was in the southern part of the Congo rainforest, just 11km (7 miles) from a fellow Scottish Cuckoo, BB.

On the 24 December, locations show that Whortle had moved 90km (55 miles) north-east from his previous location near Lake Mai.

Patch stayed in his location near the lake until the 26 December but also moved away, in a north-westerly direction, of around 75km (47 miles). This movement took him close to the area which Waller had recently departed as he journeyed back to Congo. Will Patch follow Waller and move even further north?

David, Patch, Waller and Whortle are all still in the Democratic Republic of Congo and all the tags have transmitted within the last few weeks. Patch and Waller are still close to the shores of Lake Mai while Whortle is a little further north,  

David, our one remaining Welsh tagged Cuckoo, has gone the longest without transmitting, with the last signal received just over a week ago on 16 December. This year David is a little ahead of schedule, having spent Christmas further north in the swamp forests in 2012 and moving a few days after to the area he is now in, just north of the Salonga National Park and close to a tributary of the Congo River. 

Of the Cuckoos tagged in Scotland this year, Livingstone is still on the edge of the Téké Plateau, whilst Patch is in an area of closed canopy forest with seasonally flooded grassland west of Lac Mai in DRC. Waller is in the swamp forests about 120km (75 miles) ESE of Chris and Derek. All three of these birds could be in their final mid-winter locations, although we might well see Waller at least move further south towards the gallery forest / savannah mosaics.

Patch didn't pause for long in Cameroon and from his location on 11 October he travelled 1240km (770 miles) south-west to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he has remained until now. He is in the Bandundu region, close to Lake Mai-Ndombe, a large freshwater lake within the Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe area and the largest Wetland of International Importance recognized by the Ramsar Convention in the world. 

We were surprised to see that further signals received on 9 October showed that Patch had moved from DRC to Cameroon, a distance of over 1000km (620 miles), in less than an hour! These signals continued and it's clear to see now that the location pinpointed in DRC was an error location and that Patch is most definitely in Cameroon. He will have moved here directly from Chad, a distance of over 1000km (600 miles).

Patch is the latest Cuckoo to make a big movement southwards. From Chad, where he remained until at least 4 October, he travelled around 1000km (600 miles) and by the early hours of 9 October was in the north-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is currently just over the border from the Central African Republic's capital, Bangui.

By the afternoon of 26 September, Patch had left Lake Chad in a south-easterly direction, travelling around 255km (160 miles) and venturing into the Chari- Baguirmi region of Chad. By the 27 September however he had travelled 70km (45 miles) northwards and was close to the Hadjer-Lamis region. Chance currently remains at the lake. 

Signals from Patch’s tag this morning and lunchtime show he was also moving south and had travelled 890km (550 miles) to southern Italy!  He is close to the town of Rizzuto and about 95km (59 miles) NE of the Straits of Messina. We expect he will stop here only briefly before continuing south to begin his desert crossing. When we next hear from his tag, he could be over Libya, Niger or Chad.... 

Patch is making his way south and has travelled from Austria to northern Italy.  On 10 August he was still close to Schwaz, Austria but by the afternoon of 12 August he was 260km (160 miles) further south, near Remedello, in the province of Brescia, and just 28km (17 miles) south-west of Lake Garda. Despite this movement, he is still currently the most northerly Cuckoo of our tagged birds . 

By the 2 August, Patch had moved across the border and into Austria. Signals placed him 17km (11 miles) east of Schwaz, a city in Tyrol in the Austrian Alps. He is the only Cuckoo to have stopped in Austria this year and only Chance the Cuckoo is currently further north than Patch's current position. 

From his last position, Patch has headed south. The latest signals, received yesterday evening, show that he had covered 190km (118 miles) and was north of Mainburg, in the region of Bavaria. We continued to receive transmissions until the early hours of 1 August, which although of poor quality, indicate that he continued south, past Munich and was around the German border with Austria.

We can now confirm that 128303 has a name and will be called Patch. He has been named on behalf of the Patchwork Challenge and Meopta and Forest Optics, who have sponsored participants in the challenge. It looks like this comes just in time too, while three of our tagged Cuckoos have made it to Africa, signals from Patch’s tag show that he is finally on the move, heading south within England. Transmissions this morning show he is moving around close to the border between south Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire, around 16km (10 miles) south-east of Doncaster. 

In the early morning on the 8 July, 128303 was close to Inveraray, having travelled around 125km (75 miles) south.  Another 200km (125 miles) in 24 hours and he was close to Gretna, flying over the border and in to England just after this. Signals received in the last few days show that he remains in the area between Carlisle and Brampton. Both Roy and Wallace did a similar thing last year, settling close to the border of England and Scotland before moving on, Roy towards the North Moors National Park and then Germany and Wallace back to Scotland and then to France. 

These two Scottish birds are still in the area close to where they were tagged and have not yet followed Livingstone south. The Cuckoos from Devon, Wales and Sussex have all left. Who will be the last to leave, Cuckoos from the Norfolk Broads or those from Scotland? 

128303 was tagged at the same time as Karma. However, since then he has generally stayed further up the glen, especially around the forestry at Dorusduain. It appears that these two birds were lured from different directions when they were caught!