Updates from our Cuckoos

BB has left Germany and flown over Austria to reach Italy and is close to Venice.  He joins East Anglian Cuckoos Stanley and Chris, and fellow Scottish Cuckos Livingstone and Waller, all of whom are in different areas of northern Italy.

With three un-named birds left we are letting you choose what to name one of our Sherwood Cuckoos!  Anyone who sponsors a Cuckoo before the end of June will be entered in to a draw. We’ll then pick one entry at random and will contact the winner who can then suggest a suitable name*. Find out how you could name a Cuckoo. 

Stanley is now on the move and, while the maps show him over the English Channel, we've received further (low quality) locations which place him south-west of Paris, France. Meanwhile BB is a little further behind but has left Scotland and, as of early this morning, was north-west of Newcastle. 

During the evening of 27 April BB left the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain.  When he next transmitted on the evening of 29 April he was in northwest France, 48km (28 miles) southeast of St-Malo and 648km (400 miles) north of his last position in Spain. From the information received it looks like he took a direct flight across the Bay of Biscay. His next transmission at 03.26 on 2 May showed that he didn’t hang around in France as he was on the southern shore of Loch Katrine, Stirlingshire, the site at which he was tagged on 17th May 2012. He is now just over 6,000km (4,000 miles) from the Congo Rainforest and the area in which he spent the winter, and that he set out from three-and-a-half months ago.

After completing his desert crossing around the 16 April, BB continued on from Algeria and by the 18 April was a further 685km (425 miles) further north and in Spain, at a location just north of Madrid.  He didn't stop here though and has continued north to the edge of the Cantabrian mountains. He is about 100km (60 miles) south of the  Bay of Biscay. 

Signals on 13 April showed that BB had moved northward but over the next few hours he appeared to move very little. We were a bit worried about this and so were relieved to see that further signals were received yesterday which showed that he had continued onwards and had crossed the desert successfully! They weren't of adequate quality to automatically update the map but given the number of signals received it looks as if these are accurate. They place him in the north of Algeria, near the city of Oran on the northwestern Mediterranean coast. 

By the 9 April, BB had left Nigeria and travelled 1000k (620 miles) in a north-westerly direction to reach Burkina Faso. He's remained there for the last couple of days.

Sometime between the early hours of 24 February and lunchtime on the 26 February, BB made another move north, leaving Gabon behind. During that time he covered 390km (240 miles) to reach  the Mbam et Djerem National Park in central Cameroon.  From the satellite images you can see he is now out of the thick cover of the Congo rainforest and in the edge of some forest, where the tree coverage thins out. 

BB has left Congo and as of 24 February was in north-east Gabon, having flown 345km (215 miles) north-west of his last location in Congo. He is now in the north of the Minkébé National Park.