Updates from our Cuckoos

We hoped Chris would have made the big jump over the weekend but persistent bad weather has kept him in Italy. We have received lots of data from him, on Saturday and again this morning, so we know that he is making small movements around northern Italy. There is a band of bad weather running directly across Chris' route to Norfolk, hopefully this will clear soon enabling Chris to complete the final leg of his journey. The adverse weather conditions seem to be a major factor in this year's migration, with many migratory species appearing in lower numbers than we might otherwise expect for the end of April. 

We heard from Chris's tag on the evening of the 14 April but there has been no further movement from his previous position in Italy. He is poised for his return to the UK and could arrive anytime.

Today's transmissions from Chris show that he has not moved far since 10 April. He may need to refuel for a week before the last leg of the journey from  Italy to Norfolk.

Our last point on 7 April put Chris in the middle of the the Mediterranean between Corsica and the French and Italian coasts. We weren't confident of this point as it was a poor quality fix and his tag appeared to be malfunctioning as transmissions continued for more than the scheduled 10 hour. However, it appears to have reset itself and at 9am on 10 April we picked him up in north-western Italy near the town of Sarzana. He appears to be in a mosaic of forest/farmland which looks like ideal staging habitat.

Chris and Kasper are due to transmit later this afternoon/evening. Chris's tag was malfunctioning on the last transmission and sent messages for more than the allotted 10 hours so we hope it will have reset itself.

A poor quality fix put Chris over the sea in between Corsica and the Italian and French coasts.

Our last record of Chris was from Ivory Coast on the 2 April at 11:09 BST. We next heard from him approximately 2,500 km away at 2100 on the 4 April on the southern edge of the Grand Erg Oriental Desert, a large field of sand dunes within the Sahara desert.

We tracked his desert crossing for 6 hours and he travelled about 350km. He should have finished his Saharan crossing by about breakfast time 5 April.  If he stays on the same track he should end up in north-east Algeria, approximately half way between Algiers and Tunis. We look forward to seeing which way he is coming back to the UK - to Spain or through Sardinia or Sicily through to mainland Italy... make sure you check back soon to find out!

On 31 March, Chris remained just west of the Ghanaian border in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast).

We received a transmission from Chris' tag in the early hours of yesterday morning which showed no further movement since he hopped over the border almost two weeks ago. We expect all four Cuckoos will be likely to attempt to cross the Sahara soon so watch this space!

Chris has joined Martin in Ivory Coast, skipping across the border from his previous position in Ghana. He has moved around 86km (53 miles) north-west and is 10km (6 miles) SE of Tankesse.