Updates from our Cuckoos

This is the third ‘autumn’ that we have been able to follow Joe, after he was satellite tagged in Norfolk in May 2022, and he has taken much the same route this year as on earlier migrations.

Mirroring his previous movements, he is currently in south-east Chad, nearing the Bahr Aouk River, on the border of Central African Republic.  

Having crossed the Sahara a week ago, Joe has been taking it relatively easy.

He moved down through north-east Nigeria, passing through Cameroon and is currently in the Chari-Baguirmi region of southern Chad.

Joe set off across the Mediterranean from Sardinia on Saturday night (13), covering 240 km (150 miles) of open water before arriving in North Africa close to Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia.

From here he carried on southward and commenced his non-stop flight across the Sahara. Our last signal, received yesterday evening (16), saw him some 2,800 km (1,740 miles) from his point of entry on the Tunisian coast. He is now in south-eastern Niger, close to the Nigerian and Chad borders.

Joe was the first our tagged Cuckoos to cross the Sahara last year too – he doesn’t hang about!    

Joe has finally tired of life around Saint-Tropez after a stay of almost three weeks.

He is the first of our Cuckoos to leave the continental mainland and has now made his way to Sardinia. Currently located close to the south coast of the island, near the capital city Cagliari, he is poised to make the relatively short crossing to North Africa.

By this time last year, he had already left Sardinia and had started to cross the Sahara...

Joe has really covered some ground since the last update, just four days ago. After leaving the area around the Somme, he has flown approximately 868 km (540 miles) to the Mediterranean coast and is now close to the glamorous ‘jet set’ resort of Saint-Tropez.

Will Joe be the first of our tagged Cuckoos to cross into North Africa?

Having spent the past few weeks around Cranwich Heath, just north of Thetford in Norfolk, Joe has now set off on his ‘autumn’ migration. Heading south-east, he passed Colchester, then cut down to the Kent coast before setting off across the Channel, leaving UK soil between Folkestone and Dover.

Having made landfall around the Somme Estuary, after a flight of around 265 km (164 miles), he is now resting and feeding before continuing his journey through France.

Since being tagged in June 2022, this is the third successive autumn migration where Joe will be tracked, providing us with yet more invaluable data.

Since arriving in Breckland, Norfolk three days ago, Joe has been touring around the Thetford Forest area and is currently exploring the fields and hedgerows roughly 10km south east of Downham Market.

Demonstrating just how site-faithful these Cuckoos can be, Joe has arrived back in the Brecklands in  Norfolk, less than 20km (12 miles) from where he was tagged in early summer 2022. He is just five days later than his return to the same area in 2023.

Since leaving the Bordeaux region a few days ago, he has covered around 950km (590 miles), flying due north, crossing the Channel close to Bayeux and hitting UK soil around Bognor Regis.

Joe is the first of our tagged Cuckoos to reach France, having moved some 580km (360 miles) since his last location on the Spanish / Portuguese border.

He flew north-east, passing over Bilbao and took a little short-cut over the Bay of Biscay, arriving in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, in an area of coastal lakes just 75km (46 miles) south-west of Bordeaux.

Joe continues to stick close to the Portuguese border and after a 172km (106 miles) journey north is now exploring the area just east of the town of Saucelle, close to the Arribes del Duero Natural Park.

Will his next big move see him heading north-east and into France west of the Pyrenees, or will he cut across a stretch of the Bay of Biscay and make landfall further north along the French coast?