Updates from our Cuckoos

Trent has left Senegal and flown 320 km (199 miles) north-east into Mali. He is now approximately 22 km (14 miles) north-west of the town of Diongaga in the Kayes Region of south western Mali, just south of the border with Mauritania.

This area has seen some heavy rain over the last couple of days which should help ensure a good supply of invertebrate food for Trent. 

Cuach Cores has continued his move east, flying 321 km (200 miles) east to his new location in the countryside north-west of the city of Morteau. Morteau is in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of eastern France and just 6 km or so from the Swiss border.

He is now only 215 km from the stop-over location in northern Italy that he started this part of his detour from, will he cross the Alps again back into Northern Italy?

Sadly it appears that we have heard the last from Suffolk Cuckoo Jasper. When we last heard from him he was in the countryside west of Saint-Julien-du-Sault in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. We can't be certain what has happened to him, but our suspicion is that he has perished in that area. We are of course sad that Jasper's journey was a relatively short one but he has added valuable information to our growing knowledge of the pressures faced by our Cuckoos, and importantly, information about where they are dying.

We have been waiting anxiously for further updates on KP's progress across the desert, willing him on during his epic journey. Since our last update he has battled on south, flying a further 920 km (572 miles) from Egypt into Sudan.

The most recent updates received between 3 pm and 10 pm yesterday showed him in the desert some 50 km north of the Meidob volcanic field in Darfur, Sudan.

Although he is still in the desert, he appears to be in a seasonal river bed and with heavy thunderstorms yesterday, he may well be able to find some food here.

We'll keep our fingers crossed that the next time we receive an update from KP's tag he will have completed his desert crossing. 

Trent has continued his journey south through Senegal. He has flown a further 60 km (37 miles) south and is now at the south-eastern corner of the Diambour Forest Reserve in south-eastern Senegal. Clement, one of the very first Cuckoos we tagged, spent some time here on his way south in 2011.

He is also now at the northern edge of the 9,000 sq km Niokolo-Koba National Park.  This vast area of woodland savannah, wet woodlands and seasonal wetlands should provide rich pickings for a Cuckoo like Trent.

New updates received from Cuach Cores' tag between 3 am and 10 am this morning show that he has flown 141 km (88 miles) east from his last location.

He has spent the last few hours close to EDF's Dampierre nuclear power plant  in the town of Dampierre-en-Burly, in the Loiret department of north-central France. 

Over the last couple of days Trent has flown 370 km (230 miles) south from southern Mauritania into Senegal.

He is now in a sparsely populated part of the sahelian plains of eastern Senegal, approximately 27 km (17 miles) east of the city of Tambacounda.

It is the height of the rainy season here so there should be abundant invertebrate life for Trent to feast on. 

Over the last couple of days Cuach Cores has flown 390 km (243 miles) north-west through France, taking him to the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. He is close to the town of Les Hermites, approximately 30 km (18 miles) north of Tours. 

Although we have seen Cuckoos turn back on themselves before, the size of this movement makes us suspect that Cores was unable to improve his body condition at the stop-over locations he had used further south. Hopefully he will find a better feeding area now that will enable him to build up his fat reserves for the journey ahead.  

Since crossing the Sahara, Cuach Torc has flown 117 km (72 miles) south and is now in the Sahel of Central Darfur.

He is currently on the western edge of the Marrah Mountains, approximately 73 km (45 miles) north-west of the town of Zalingei.   

KP has been rather dormant of late, but he's now on the move again. He's finally left northern Italy, departing on Saturday night at around 10pm and progressing south-east through Italy.

By 6:45 on Sunday morning he had reached the foot of Italy but pressed on across the Mediterranean and by 16:25 yesterday afternoon he had reached Tobruk on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt.

He has since progressed onwards south into the Sahara and by the time the last update reached us at 09:17 this morning he had flown 772 km (480 miles) from Tobruk. At that time he was over the desert, straddling the border between Libya and Egypt, approximately 215 km (134 miles) north-east of the Libyan town of Al Jawf.  

KP has flown 2,750 km (1,708 miles) since leaving Northern Italy on Saturday night. Hopefully he has enough energy reserves to take him the rest of the way across the desert, despite the long journey he has already undertaken.