Updates from our Cuckoos

Since arriving in Congo Sherwood hasn't moved very far, although during the last few days he moved north and east by around 30km (20 miles). He is just on the northern edge of the Crystal Mountains and to the east of Kibangou.

On the 8 November we received a series of locations that showed Sherwood had moved out of Nigeria and that he was in the very northeast corner of Equatorial Guinea. Four days later he was in the Congo rainforest. During this time he has flown almost 1,500km (900 miles).

The last week has seen Sherwood move south and east out of Benin and into Nigeria. He is currently in an area of fairly open forest to the north of the town of Arimogija and 460km (286 miles) from his Benin stopover site.

It was beginning to look like Sherwood might never leave the beach in Senegal but on 29 September he began the journey east in earnest. In the last three weeks he has travelled through Senegal, Mali, the northern tip of Guinea, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Togo and onwards into Benin, a distance of 2,239km (1,391 miles). He is currently just tom the south of Tokou in an area of open country with scattered small trees, and the temperature is around 31 degrees C in light south-easterly winds, perfect conditions for an onward flight.

Sherwood is still using an area of dunes and trees behind the beach just to the north of Dakar in Senegal. The data we are getting from his tag suggests that all is still well with him, so it will be interesting to see when he decides to move east.

Sherwood is still in Senegal, having been here since 6 August, but during the last few days he has moved a little further west and is now frequenting the coastal scrub behind the beach to the north of the capital Dakar and to the south of the fishing viallge of Kayar. He is now the last of our tagged Cuckoos to stopover in Senegal this year.

During the evening of 5 August Sherwood was crossing the Sahara and was in the Akchar Desert, to the west of the Richat Structure, also known as the eye of the Sahara. The terrain here is barren and the daytime temperature is currently around 40 degrees. The winds are fairly strong in this part of the desert right now and are coming from the east. This will cause Sherwood to drift to the west. If successful in his crossing, he may well join Thomas and Lambert in Senegal. 

Having left northern France and crossed the Pyrenees into Spain only three days ago, Sherwood has kept going. His map currently shows him crossing the Straits of Gibraltar but we have received a few more recent locations that show he is now in Morocco, to the south of Tangier.

Having spent the last three weeks in northern France Sherwood is finally on his way south. On 21 July we recieved a series of locations from his tag that showed he had crossed the Pyrenees and was in Spain. He is just to the west of Olmedillas and around 100km (60 miles) northeast of Madrid.

Having headed south from Gaillon, north of Paris, Sherwood reached as far south as Riberac, 450km (278 miles) south, before turning northeast and then north and flying another 255km (158 miles). Having flown over 700km (400 miles) he is only 288km (179 miles) from Gaillon. Presumably this u-turn is a response to conditions further south, although the weather looks OK.