Updates from our Cuckoos

Raymond moved to southern Mauritania on 5 August and signals received since show he has remained there, in the Trarza Desert. This prolonged static period in the desert, and the temperature data from the tag which shows big fluctuations rather than a more constant temperature, suggests that sadly, Raymond has perished on his desert crossing. Raymond was tagged in 2018 and so had already contributed a complete migration cycle to our data bank, nevertheless it is sad to have lost him when he appeared so close to reaching his stop-over location in Senegal. 

We were a bit concerned about Raymond, who appeared to have spent the evening of 5 August on the desert floor, in a pretty inhospitable looking area, only 50km from good habitat along the Senegal river.

However, Chris Hewson has been looking at the conditions there and it appears the spot where Raymond has stopped is the first place he would have reached since his mid-desert crossing that has had any rain this year, so he may have sensed that and decided to ditch. Hopefully soon we'll find he has moved to somewhere more lush looking.

Blazing into the lead at this early stage of the journey is the third Knepp Cuckoo, Raymond. From the island Île d'Oléron, south west of La Rochelle, Raymond continued down the coast. Signals received on the morning of 22 June revealed that he had covered a further 525km (325 miles) and was close to Sigüenza, a city in Guadalajara, central Spain. 

We thought that Raymond could leave the UK any day now and he has. A series of locations received from his tag during the evening of 20 June showed that he was on the west coast of France, just to the north of Bordeaux. From the information received he seems to have spent around three hours on the Ile de Oleron before continuing south over the Atlantic parallel with the coast.

The last location we received, at around 10:30 on the evening of 20 June, showed that he was still heading south 24km (15 miles) offshore of the French coast. It will be interesting to see where he next makes landfall. He is already 654km (406 miles) from the Knepp Estate, Sussex.