Updates from our Cuckoos

At the end of January Torc departed his wintering area in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and crossed into the Republic of the Congo.

He is now in dense rainforest approximately 50km (30 miles) south-west of the town of Pokola. 

A few days ago Cuach Torc flew 260km (160 miles) north-west from his previous location, towards the border between the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

He has since flown a further 135km (84 miles) east, deeper into DRC and is now close to the Busira River approximately 10 miles north-east of the town of Ingende.

Cuach Torc was the first of our tagged Cuckoos to reach the Congo wintering grounds this year, arriving on 20th September.

Since then has has remained in the same area, deep in the rainforest of Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This is Africa's largest tropical rainforest reserve, at 3,600,000 hectares it is more than half the size of Wales. This area is very isolated and only accessible by boat.

Since crossing the Sahara, Cuach Torc has flown 117 km (72 miles) south and is now in the Sahel of Central Darfur.

He is currently on the western edge of the Marrah Mountains, approximately 73 km (45 miles) north-west of the town of Zalingei.   

Over the last few days Cuach Torc has made excellent progress south. By Saturday evening (29 July) he had departed Greece, crossed the Mediterranean and reached northern Libya.

He carried on south and by late on Monday (31 July) he was over the Sahara in eastern Chad.

By early this morning (3 August) he had reached the Marrah Mountains in Darfur, Sudan. He is currently 40 km (25 miles) west of the town of Kutum.

It'll be interesting to see whether Torc remains in the area or continues further south into the Sahel.

After about a week on the Adriatic coast close to Ravenna in northern Italy, Cuach Torc has flown 530 km (329 miles) south-east, across the Adriatic Sea.

Having initially made landfall on the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, he has since moved further inland into Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He is now nearby the town of Bileca in East Herzegovina, close to the border with Montenegro. Those who have been following the project for a few years will recall that one of our Welsh Cuckoos, David, was a regular visitor to Montenegro on his way south. 

Since our last update, Cuach Torc has flown 381 km (237 miles) east from his last location on the France/Italy border to his current location, close to the city of Ravenna in northern Italy.  

Cuach Torc has leap-frogged Cores to take up pole position as our most southerly Cuckoo.

By early yesterday evening, Torc had just crossed the border into Northern Italy and was close to the village of Olivetta san Michele in the Province of Imperia, in Liguria. 

Cuach Torc is in hot pursuit of Cuach Cores! Over the last few days Torc has flown over 500 miles from his last location near Clonmel in County Tipperary to his current location, which is close to the village of Herbault in the French department of Loir-et-Cher.

Torc is now approximately 100 km (62 miles) north-east of Cores. 

Cuach is the Irish name for Cuckoo, and Torc is the name of one of the mountains in Killarney National Park where he was tagged.

Torc was one of three handsome male Cuckoos caught by the tagging team on the morning of 17 May. 

Over the weekend Torc has flown 136 km (84 miles) north-east and is now close to the town of Clonmel in County Tipperary.