Dudley is still quite far west, but the area he is in is wet at this time of year - the rains have just finished. In any case, it is in a floodplain that is well-covered in Acacia nilotica woodland. There should be plenty of food for him in the woods, so his prolonged stop there is not very surprising. 

Dudley has recently made a small movement south from Algeria down to Niger. 

The three Cuckoos who have successfully completed their desert crossings, Dudley, Hennah and Stanley, have all remained within the same areas. They are probably taking time to feed up and recover from their long journeys, before continuing south later.

We are still receiving locations for Dudley but the data shows that his temperature is fluctuating, suggesting that we have lost him and that his tag, whilst still charging, is reflecting the ups and downs in the daily temperature rather than Dudley's body temperature.

Dudley is the first of our tagged Cuckoos to make it to Africa this year, transmitting from southern Algeria yesterday, on the evening of 9 July. He has travelled over 1870km (1160 miles) from his location in Spain on 3 July. 

Last year the first Cuckoo in Africa was Meavy, transmitting on the very same date and followed a few days later by Dudley and Whortle who transmitted on the 12 July.  In previous years the earliest transmission dates from Africa have been a bit later on13 July 2011, 16 July 2012 and 18 of July 2013.

Dudley is leading the way south and is currently our most southerly Cuckoo. He is in northern Spain, just northeast of Cantaviejo. He arrived here in the early hours of 27 June.

Nine Cuckoos (plus Hennah whose tag has still not sent a good quality location) have now left the UK and seven of these (plus Hennah) are currently in France. The most recent three to have transmitted from France are new Welsh Cuckoo 146760, and Sherwood Cuckoos Jake and Dudley. Jake is currently in Burgundy, while 146760 is further south in the Auvergne region and Dudley is even further south in Toulouse.

It's interesting to note that Dudley left about a week later this year compared to 2014 while Jake left two weeks earlier.

Dudley remained in the area of the Pyranees until at least the 13 April and was crossing over France during the 15.  Signals received around lunchtime on the 16 revealed he had made it back to the UK and was close to his breeding grounds in Sherwood Forest, where he was originally tagged. He becomes the second of our tagged Cuckoos to make it back to the UK.  

Dudley transmitted from south-west France, close to the Pyrenees, on 11 April. He is well ahead of the other tagged birds but could now spend time recovering from his 500km flight from central Spain. Will he be the fisrt back to the UK?

It looks like Dudley's move to southern Mali on the morning of 6 April was indeed the start of his migration! Between then and around 10am on 8 April he flew 2360km (1470 miles) crossing Mali and Algeria to reach northern Morocco. He didn't stop there though and crossed over into southern Spain by late afternoon of the same day becoming the first of this year's tagged Cuckoos to return to Europe. Further low quality signals indicate he has continued north 330km (205 miles) and was south of Madrid just after midnight this morning. 

Dudley has moved north-west from his location in Ghana, travelling 550km (340 miles) and is now in Mali. Could this be the start of his migration? 

After arriving in Ghana on 4 March Dudley has moved north and west and is currently 56km (35 miles) from the border with Ivory Coast.

Dudley has been busy and covered hundreds of miles in the last few days. His last location was in Congo on 19 February but on the 3 March he was 1020km (640 miles) further north-west, and within the border of Nigeria. Over the duration of 3 March he continued moving westwards, travelling 950km (590 miles) to Lake Volta in Ghana by the afternoon of 4 March. He is the third of our tagged Cuckoos to move into West Africa. 

Chester and Dudley are the only two Cuckoos, from who we are receiving regular transmissions, who are currently within the Congo rainforest. We expect them to move north to the forest edge shortly as other Cuckoos have done.

Dudley is still settled in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and still close to the river. We last heard from him at 05.17 on 15 December.

Dudley first arrived in the Congo rainforest on 23 September, choosing a location just within the Democratic Republic of Congo and close to the Congo river. Since then he has remained in the area, moving just once, from north of the river to just south of it and closer to a triburary of the Congo river. 

Six of the tracked cuckoos (Peter, Dudley, Emsworthy, David, Livingstone and Stanley) are already within the Congo rainforest block. The first of these to arrive was Stanley on 16 September, the earliest of the tracked cuckoos ever to arrive there by 12 days! He was followed by Emsworthy on 19 and Livingstone and Dudley on 23. Previous to this year, the earliest Cuckoo had been Chris, who arrived there on 25 September in 2012.

Since then, David arrived on 24 and Peter on 28 September 2014. David was five and four days earlier than in 2012 and 2013 respectively whilst Livingstone was 13 days earlier than last year. It is very interesting to note that all four of the cuckoos who beat the previous earliest arrival date came from northern Cameroon and the adjacent part of Chad, a region that has received over 50mm less rainfall than usual over the past month and more than 100mm less over the past three months.

With most cuckoos now in the Sahel region, we're entering a fairly quiet period in the annual cycle of the tagged cuckoos with less movement than during the migration season.

Birds who completed their desert crossing will spend time in the Sahel recovering their body condition, and some may stay quite a long time. In previous years, cuckoos have stayed in this area for as much as several months, while others spend a shorter amount of time before moving south into the humid zone forests.

The eastern Sahel in Chad and south Sudan has received plenty of rain recently, and thus conditions are likely good for cuckoos. Northern Cameroon was slightly drier than average in August, and so cuckoos such as Derek, Dudley, Stanley, and Emsworthy may be moving on if foraging conditions aren't suitable.

Today Dudley has moved 445km (275 miles) in a south-easterly direction and is now in Cameroon. This makes him the most southerly Cuckoo and the first of the Cuckoos this year to transmit from the Congo Basin and the lowland rain forest.

Stanley has travelled south from Niger and is now in Nigeria. He joins Sherwood bird Dudley, in the east of Nigeria, and Devon bird Emsworthy, who is about as far east in Nigeria as you can go, close to Nigeria's border with Cameroon. 

We are still following twenty-two birds. Currently two cuckoos are in France – Walpole and unnamed cuckoo 134957.

Five birds are in and around the Po Valley in northern Italy – BB, Chris, Stanley, Waller and Livingstone.

Six birds are in Spain – Two of these are big movers this week. After finally leaving the UK, Derek hasn’t hung around. After a brief stop in central-western France, he is now in central-northern Spain, just south of Tolbanos de Abajo. It is Maji that has provided the biggest surprise though. He seems to be taking a tour of the European mountain ranges. Having spent a time in the Austrian Alps, he is now in the central Pyrenees!

David is still in Montenegro and Ash is still in Croatia; both of these birds could make the move to Africa any day now.

We now have seven birds in Africa, six of them south of the Sahara. Emsworthy is the latest to arrive here and he is currently just south of Lake Chad, in an area that Chris also favours. Three other Cuckoos – Peter, Hennah and Dudley – are also close to Lake Chad.

Three Cuckoos are now safely across the desert, including Meavy, who had grounded and stayed in the same area for a few days. He is now in north Benin while Dudley is in Nigeria and Whortle is further to the east in Sudan. 

Signals received yesterday show that Cuckoo 134955 is now in the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Dudley, one of the other birds tagged in Sherwood has finished his desert crossing and made it to Nigeria while Cuckooo 134957 is much further north in Belgium. 

On Saturday 12 July transmissions were received from both Dudley and Whortle to show they had arrived in Africa.

Dudley has cut across to Africa, from his location in Spain to Niger. Whortle, however, has taken a completely different route to last year - travelling via Italy towards Libya/Egypt! This is a real surprise as last year he went west via Spain to western Africa and then to Niger. Over 4,000km (2,500 miles) separate the two locations within Africa! How will this complete change in route affect the rest of his journey and what are the reasons behind this dramatic difference? In previous years, while we have seen some minor changes, routes have remained relatively similar. It shows that the more we learn about Cuckoos, and the possible reasons for their declining populations, the more questions are raised!  

Dudley and Whortle join Meavy, the first Cuckoo to arrive in Africa, who had grounded in the Algerian desert. Since then he has continued south to Niger but has still yet to complete his desert crossing, indicating he may be struggling.   

Skinner has left France and continued south to Spain where Meavy, Gilbert, Dudley and Chester are currently located. In previous years we have only seen East Anglian and Devon Cuckoos take this route but this year we also have Chester, one of the birds tagged in Sussex, Dudley, one of the Nottinghamshire birds and Gilbert, a New Forest bird, heading this way. 

The three Cuckoos which took this route in 2012/13 all perished but in 2013/14 5 of the 6 birds which took this route successfully made it to their wintering grounds. 

Dudley is the chosen name given to Cuckoo 134952 by Joanna Harris who won the prize draw. Joanna was randomly selected from all the project supporters and cuckoo sponsors who have helped to fund the project so far this spring. 

With three un-named birds left we are letting you choose what to name one of our Sherwood Cuckoos!  Anyone who sponsors a Cuckoo before the end of June will be entered in to a draw. We’ll then pick one entry at random and will contact the winner who can then suggest a suitable name*. Find out how you could name a Cuckoo. 

Gilbert, Meavy and un-named Cuckoo 134952 are all in Spain while Hennah is just over the border in the south of France. It looks like it won't be long until he joins them. 

Hennah, Chester, Whortle and 134952 all transmitted from outside of the UK on 19 June. Whortle, one of the Devon birds tagged in 2013, hadn't even left the UK this time last year, having only transmitted from outside of the UK on 28 June in 2013.

Whortle, Chester and as yet un-named 134952 are the most recent Cuckoos confirmed to have left the UK. All three of these birds have travelled to north-western France, transmitting these updated locations on 19 June.   

Poor quality signals received on the same day indicate that two further Cuckoos have started their journeys. Hennah and Meavy look like they are in France too but until further locations are received to confirm this the maps won't update.

So we have at least 8 and possibly 10 Cuckoos which have left the UK. If the unconfirmed locations are true, then interestingly, all three Dartmoor birds (Emsworthy, Whortle and Meavy) and all three New Forest birds (Peter, Gilbert and Hennah) have left.  In addition one Scottish bird, 2 Nottinghamshire birds and one of the Sussex birds have also left the UK. 

The first of three Cuckoos taggged in Sherwood Forest, 134952 was caught flying between young alders near Shirebrook, after having failed to catch three cuckoos flying over our nets at Budby Common earlier that morning. The second two birds, 134955 and 134957 were trapped at Sherwood Pines the following morning, the second bird flying into the nets just as we released the first!