Signals received yesterday morning show that Chris has continued quickly onwards from Italy and is already in France, travelling 450km (280 miles) to Charbonnat in southern Burgundy with little rest. This has been a very fast paced journey from Ghana - Chris has covered about 4,600 km (2858 miles) in less than a week, which is not much slower than the fastest of the swifts we have tracked with geolocators! If he is still in good condition and the weather is kind, he could be home in the next few days.
Updates from our Cuckoos
Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.
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Chris in France
09 Apr 2013
Chris makes it to Europe
08 Apr 2013
Although he rested in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria during the day of 4 April after completing his desert crossing, Chris must have moved on that night because when the tag’s next transmission period began two days later he had travelled a further 937km (582 miles) almost due N, having crossed the Mediterranean Sea to reach Italy! He is currently on the Mediterranean coast of western Liguria in north-western Italy and is just 33km (20 miles) from the border with France and 42km (26 miles) from Monaco. Last year he hit land about 185 km (115 miles) further east in Sarzana.
Chris springs forth
04 Apr 2013
Chris has become the first of our tracked cuckoos in 2013 to cross the Sahara! This morning he arrived on the northern side of the desert - he was settled in his current position, on what appears to be a shallow, juniper-covered slope on a high Atlas plateau in Batna Province (northern Algeria) by 0640 this morning but three hours earlier he was still in active migration, according to the sensor data from his tag.
Around early evening on Monday (1 April) he was still in Digya NP, Ghana, but it seems likely that he started moving north soon after that last transmission was received. This means that the entire flight of 3,200km (2,000 miles) took a little less than 60 hours, giving an average straight-line ground speed of 55 kph (35 mph). Last year he arrived on the north side of the desert two days later (5 April versus 4 April, with last year having been a leap year) – the last position we had then as he headed north across the Sahara showed him during the evening of 4 April heading towards exactly the spot he is in now, although he didn’t stop there long as two days later he was heading over the Mediterranean towards northern Italy.
Cuckoos preparing for crossing
03 Apr 2013
None of the Cuckoos began crossing the Sahara, as anticipated, over the Easter weekend but we still expect them to make a move soon. Stay tuned for further updates when we get news of any movements.
Chris feeding up in Ghana
28 Mar 2013
Chris has now been in the Digya National Park for 10 days preparing for his next move. Will he do this from Ghana or Ivory Coast, as last year? We do know that he didn't use the same stop-overs on his southward journey as he did the previous year so we will have to wait and see where he will attempt his crossing of the Sahara Desert from this time.
Chris in Ghana
18 Mar 2013
Chris has continued moving rapidly westwards and by Saturday morning (16 March) he was apparently settled in Digya National Park, Ghana. He had moved 1075km (667 miles) west in just over 2 days since the previous location in Nigeria. He is the second Cuckoo, following Chance, to make it to Ghana. Although his current location would be a great place for him to carry out his pre-Sahara crossing stop over, last year he did this in Cote d’Ivoire, so it will be interesting to see whether he stops here or carries on west.
Chris in Nigeria
15 Mar 2013
Transmissions from Chris' tag on 13 March reveal that he is in Nigeria, having moved 430km (267 miles) WNW from his previous location in Cameroon. Chris is in the Benue region, about 33 km (20 miles) to the west of Nigeria’s border with Cameroon.
Chris heading north-west?
08 Mar 2013
Only low quality signals have been received recently from Chris’s tag but these show that on 4 March and throughout 6 March he was slowly zig-zagging in a north-westerly direction. The last of these transmissions at about 6pm, show him 138 km (86 miles) north-west of the location he was in on 4 March. Where will he be when the tag next transmits?!
Like Cuckoo-clock work?
04 Mar 2013
It looks like Chris was lying low in preparation for his next move, as poor quality transmissions received this morning locate him in Cameroon, 525km (326 miles) away from his location in Congo. Chris is the only bird that we are following for the second year of the project and we can see this movement is very similar in timing to last year, when he transmitted from Cameroon on 2 March. We aren’t able to say for sure when he actually arrived in Cameroon this year, only when the tag turned ‘on’ and revealed this new position. It will be interesting to see whether he will stop in Togo next, as he did on 6 March 2012, before continuing to Ghana.
This new north-westerly movement by Chris is almost parallel to BBs’ transmission points, as he travelled from Congo to Cameroon. Chris, BB and David are now all in the East Region of Cameroon. David is 80km (50 miles) to the north-west of Chris while BB is 140km (88 miles) south-west. It’s interesting that these three Cuckoos, one each from England, Scotland and Wales, are all so close together. The other Scottish bird, Chance, is much further west in Ghana, and the other Welsh bird, Lloyd, is to the south-east in Democratic Republic of Congo. How will the routes and timings of our Cuckoos’ journeys compare as they make their way back to the UK?
Chris preparing to move?
01 Mar 2013
Chris is now the only Cuckoo not to have started his northward movement and remains in Congo. His last transmission was on 25 February - could he be feeding up in preparation or already on the move? Last year Chris moved to Cameroon on 2 March and took a slower route to Ghana than any of the other Cuckoos, stopping in Togo on 6 March and transmitting from Ghana on 13 March. How closely will this year’s movements mirror those of 2012?
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