We continued to receive signals from Patch’s tag through the evening of 4 September and into 5 September as he travelled south in Niger. The next signal, and the first of good quality, was received on the afternoon of 6 September and showed Patch was in the Yobe region of Nigeria, northeast of Potiskum and had finished his desert crossing. From Italy on 2 September, Patch had travelled 3044km (1890 miles).
From this new position, Patch then headed south-east 135km (83 miles) which took him into the Borno region of Nigeria. From here he travelled north-east throughout the early hours of 7 September in an apparent beeline for Lake Chad. By mid-afternoon he had made and was at the north of the lake - the first of our tagged Cuckoos this year to stop-over at this site. Livingstone spent a day or two there, while transmissions from Sussex’s tag show he was no closer than about 75km (45 miles) north-west of Lake Chad. Chance is heading towards Lake Chad but has yet to reach its shores. Last year Chance also stopped here, along with Chris and Mungo, and all stayed in the area for a while. It was actually the last location we received for Mungo on his journey.
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