Meavy crossing the desert

10 Jul 2014
And our first Cuckoo is in Africa! Meavy was in Spain on 7 July but by yesterday lunchtime he was flying over the Sahara desert. It looks like he was grounded for several hours early this morning in the Ahaggar Mountains in Algeria - we are not sure why this is as the cuckoos usually make good headway over the desert during the cool night time hours, although he may have encountered headwinds.
 
This is the first time we have observed a Cuckoo that has taken the south-western route via Spain attempt to cross the Sahara in an easterly direction, effectively making their journey over the large expanse of desert even longer.
 
It's also the earliest date since the start of the project that we have received signals from a tagged Cuckoo within Africa. The earliest date previous to this was 13 July. It's the first year we've followed Meavy so we will have to wait and see whether any of the birds tagged in previous years also reach Africa earlier than in previous years. 

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