Sadly, it looks as if we have heard the last from Valentine. When his tag last transmitted, the battery in his tag was low on charge and had been for some time, but there's also an indication of a problem based on temperature. The temperature sensor in the tag reported about 8 degrees C lower than any of the previous readings in Angola, including those from similar times of day, and we don't think the move north by a few hundred km explains this. We suspect that Valentine perished between the last location in Angola (2nd Feb) and the ones in southwest DRC (16th Feb). Valentine was tagged in June 2019 so we have benefited from a lot of valuable data from Valentine, helping us extend our knowledge and understanding of this amazing species.  

A low quality location received from Valentine's tag suggests that he may be on the move from Angola towards Democratic Republic of Congo. Hopefully he will emerge from the forest canopy soon and his tag will receive enough sunlight to send us a more reliable location.

We've seen little movement from Valentine over the last couple of months, since he arrived in Angola at the end of November. The latest updates received at the beginning of February show that he is still in rainforest in the Bengo province of northern Angola, approximately 136 km (85 miles) north east of the capital Luanda. Given that he is probably under the dense canopy of the rainforest, it isn't unusual for us to have fewer updates from his tag, which requires solar energy to charge up the battery. In previous years he has stayed in Angola until late February/early March. 

Having flown a further 215 km (133 miles) west in northern Angola, Valentine is now very close to his 2019 wintering grounds. He is 210 km (130 miles) north east of the capital Luanda.

Valentine has passed through Cameroon, Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo, and is now in northern Angola. He is only 130 km (80 miles) north of his wintering location in 2019. Last year he arrived here on December 5 so he is a little ahead of schedule this year. If conditions are good, he may well stay in this area until late February/early March.

Valentine didn't stop long in Cameroon, signals received late yesterday afternoon (October 18) showed that he had flown a further 524 km (326 miles) south east and was in the Republic of the Congo. He is now in dense rainforest, approximately 444 km (276 miles) north of the capital Brazzaville. In 2019 he spent the winter in northern Angola, Valentine has another 755 km (470 miles) to go before reaching that area. 

Further signals received from Valentine's tag this morning place him a further 376 km (234 miles) south east of his last location, so he is now in south eastern Cameroon, approximately 205 km (127 miles) east of the capital Yaounde. Last year he wintered in northern Angola so if he is heading to the same area he has another 1,300km to fly south before reaching his final destination. 

A couple of low quality updates from Valentine's tag received during the early hours of this morning suggest that he has flown 450 km (280 miles) south east from Nigeria into Cameroon. His new location appears to be in the mountainous Adamawa region in north western Cameroon. We will have to await better quality signals before we can be certain of Valentine's location. Stay tuned!

Since our last update, Valentine has flown 83 km (52 miles) south in Nigeria and is close to the Falgore Game Reserve in Kano State in northern Nigeria. Last year Valentine passed through southern Nigeria in late November/early December, some 670 km (416 miles) south of his current position.

Since our last update Valentine has flown 1,351 km (811 miles) east from Burkina Faso to Nigeria. He is 3.5 km (2.2 miles) north of the town of Bebeji in Kano State in northern Nigeria. In 2019 he stayed in Burkina Faso until mid-November, not reaching Nigeria until 24 November so it is interesting that he has moved east so much earlier this year. 

Following our last update predicting that Valentine wouldn't be moving again for a while, he of course flew 220 km (138 miles) S-SE towards the border with Burkina Faso. By yesterday evening he had flown a further 67 km (41 miles) east over the border into Burkina Faso. He is now close to the town of Barani in north-western Burkina Faso. Last year, Valentine arrived in Burkina Faso at the end of July and stayed in western Burkina Faso until mid-November.  

Since arriving in Mali, Valentine has moved 20 km (12.5 miles) west, towards the Sahel river. He is now 22 km (14 miles) north east of the town of Niono in the Ségou region of Mali. The temperature is currently 31 degrees C and it is the rainy season. In Niono, most rain falls during the 31 days centered around August 13, with an average total accumulation of 5.7 inches. Last year Valentine stayed in west Africa until mid-November so we don't expect him to make any more big movements anytime soon. 

Over the last few days Valentine has made a huge movement south, flying 2,840 km (1,764 miles) from his previous location in southern Spain across the Sahara into Mali. At 05:37 this morning he was in southern Mali, approximately 320 km (199 miles) north-east of the capital Bamoko. In 2019 Valentine first stop after crossing the Sahara was a few hundred miles east in Burkina Faso, where he stayed until mid-November.  

New updates received from Valentine's tag early this morning suggest that he may have left France. A single low quality location received at 07:33 this morning place him in south eastern Spain, 41 km (26 miles) NW of the town and seaport of Águilas. He also stopped in southern Spain last year but crossed into northern Africa on 17 July and having cross the Sahara, made his stop over in Burkina Faso. We'll have to await further updates to be sure of Valentine's new location. 

Valentine has flown a further 512 km (319 miles) south and by yesterday evening was in an area of farmland just east of Nimes. Last year his route took him further west down through Spain so it'll be interesting to see whether he flies direct to Africa from France or travels first out to Spain. 

On Friday 3 July Valentine left his breeding grounds in Thetford, Norfolk and flew 588 km (365 miles) south east across the Channel and into eastern France. The latest signal received from his tag at 10 am yesterday morning show that he has remained in the same area, a few miles west of Charmes in the Vosges region in north-eastern France. Valentine's route south last year took him through Spain, by 18 July he was in Morocco and by a couple of days later he was in Burkina Faso having crossed the Sahara. If he follows the same plan this year we can expect rapid progress south from Valentine.  

Over the weekend Valentine flew the final leg of his return migration, covering 625 km (390 miles) from central France back to the BTO Nunnery Lakes Nature Reserve in Thetford, Norfolk. He is the third of our tagged Cuckoos to successfully complete their migration this year. One of our staff members spotted a tagged Cuckoo on the reserve this morning so it probably was Valentine!

Valentine has pressed on through France since our last update, covering 325 km (202 miles) in a north-westerly direction into Central France. By 21:50 last night he was in a forested area, approximately 6.5 km west of Dun-sur-Auron. 

Over the last couple of days Valentine as left Tunisia and flown 867 km (539 miles) over the Mediterranean in a north-westerly direction, making landfall at 1730 just south of Martigues. Since then has has flown a further 112 km (70 miles) north west and by 2230 last night he was in the southern part of the Ardeche Gorges nature reserve in the Gard department of southern France.

We have now received more updates from Valentine's tag which show that his final destination after crossing the Sahara was Tunisia. He is currently 21 km (13 miles) east of the ancient city of El Kef in north western Tunisia. 

It looks as if Valentine has completed his desert crossing as an update from his tag placed him in northern Morocco at 4am this morning. His journey over the Sahara took him from Ivory Coast, over Burkina Faso, Mali and Algeria to his current location. We have only received low quality locations from Valentine so will have to await further updates before being sure of his exact route and location.  

New updates from Valentine's tag received at around 9pm last night (Sunday 5th April), show that over the last few days he has flown 2,170 km (1,348 miles) west from his last location in Central African Republic to Ivory Coast. He is now in eastern Ivory Coast, 173 km (107 miles) east of the capital Yamoussoukro. Valentine joins two other Cuckoos in Ivory Coast as PJ and Carlton II are also here. Tennyson is just over the border in Liberia. We expect the first Cuckoos to be crossing the Sahara any day now, and usually they will have spent several weeks in west Africa before attempting the crossing so it'll be intresting to see what Valentine does next. 

An update from Valentine's tag received late last week showed that he has remained in the same location in central Republic of the Congo. Assuming all is well, we expect him to move north and west in the next few weeks.

An update received from Valentine's tag late last night shows that he has flown 847 km (526 miles) North from his wintering area in Gabon to a new location in dense rainforest in central Republic of the Congo. He is now just 100 km (62 miles) south-west of another Thetford Cuckoo, Tennyson. 

A very poor location from Valentine's tag in the last few days suggests that he is in the middle of the Gulf of Guinea, around 1,400km (890 miles) offshore. We don't believe this to be the case but it could be an indication that he is on the move. It will be interesting to see where he pops-up, fingers crossed it will be somewhere north of Angola and not out to sea. Watch this space.

Valentine only stayed in Cameroon for a few days before pressing on to his current location in northern Angola. Valentine is now 228 Km (142 miles) north-east of the capital Luanda and just 167 km (104 miles) separates him from Suffolk Cuckoo PJ.

New movements on 5 December show that Valentine didn't stick around in Cameroon for long as he had travelled a further x to reach northern Angola. He is only 170km (105 miles) from PJ, who has recently moved northwards.

Valentine left Burkina Faso on 16th November, flying 495 km (307 miles) south-east over the border into Ghana where he stayed for a week. On 23rd November he departed Ghana and flew 836 km (520 miles) east to Nigeria where he stopped for around a week near Benin City in southern Nigeria. The latest update shows that by 5:45 pm on Saturday evening (November 30) Valentine had flown a further 416 km (258 miles) south east to his current location in western Cameroon. 

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.

In the last couple of days Valentine has flown 74 km (46 miles) north west from his last location towards the border with Mali. He is now close to the city of Solenzo in the far west of Burkina Faso.

So far this year, five Cuckoos have made it successfully across the desert. Carlton II, PJ, Senan, Tennyson and Valentine are all south of the Sahara and still sending regular tag transmissions. They still have a little further to go south before reaching their final wintering destinations.  

Over the last few days Valentine has flown 322 km (200 miles) south west into south-western Burkina Faso. He is now in the Hauts-Bassins region, 55 km (34 miles) north-east of the region capital, Bobo Dioulasso. 

Since our last update Valentine has become the second of our tagged Cuckoos to successfully cross the Sahara. From his location in Morocco he has flown south east into Algeria and then due south over Mali to Burkina Faso. He is currently in the Rollo Department, a commune of Bam Province in north-western Burkina Faso. He is 125 km (78 miles) north of the capital Ouagadougou. 

An update from Valentine at 19:40 last night (Wednesday July 17) showed that he had completed his crossing of the Mediterranean and was in the High Atlas mountains in central Morocco. By 22:57 last night he had flown 737 km (458 miles) from his last stop over site in southern Spain and was near Iriqui National Park, in the Atlas mountains close to the border with Algeria. Interestingly he was just 4.8 km (3 miles) from the spot where Nottingham Cuckoo Bill perished in April 2017 (Bill's tag is still transmitting).  It'll be interesting to see whether Valentine pushes on across the desert from here. 

By the morning of July 13 Valentine had crossed the Pyrenees and was in northern Spain 19 km (11 miles) east of Barbastro. By 7 pm on July 15 he had flown a further 610 km (379 miles) south and was just north of Benahadux in Andalucia, Spain. The last signal received from Valentine came in at 10 pm last night when he appeared to be 65 km (40 miles) out over the Mediterranean on a heading for the Cape of Three Forks in northern Morocco. We'll have to await the next data transmission to see whether Valentine will become the second of our Cuckoos to reach Africa this year. 

Over the last 48 hours Valentine has flown 456km (284 miles) south west to his new location near Marmande in south-western France. 

Valentine completed his crossing of the English Channel and was 50km (30 miles) south of Paris by the evening of 25 June, 340km (210 miles) from his last location near Canterbury.  Since then he’s been roving around the area between Blandy and Maisse. 

We’re delighted to introduce some new faces to the project! Catching the birds has been challenging this year with seemingly less competition for females and so less interest in the female lure used, but thanks to the persistence of our super tagging team, we do have four new male Cuckoos to introduce to you.

Three of these newly-tagged birds are already on the way, crossing the Channel and moving into France within the last few days. Take a look at the individual blogs to find out more.

One of two birds tagged on the BTO reserve in early June, Valentine has also set off on his southward migration. By the early evening of 23 June, Valentine was northeast of Canterbury. A couple of further poor quality transmissions indicate he carried on and embarked on crossing the English channel, just south of Folkestone, but we will have to wait for the next cycle of transmissions later today to reveal how far south he has travelled. He is the 7th of our tagged Cuckoos to start their migration.