Updates from our Cuckoos

Ken had moved a further 200km (125 miles) across the Ouham region by the evening of the 24 September.  His new location is only 50km (30 miles) from Sussex's location. 

From his position in the west Nigeria, Ken has continued to move slowly eastwards. By the morning of the 15 September, Ken had travelled 730km (450 miles) and was just north of Gombe.  A couple of days later, he had covered a further 760km ( 470 miles) and, having headed off from Gombe in a more southerly direction, by the afternoon of 22 September was in the Ouham region in the north-west of the Central African Republic.  Sussex the Cuckoo is also in this region and only about 210km (130 miles) separates them.

From Burkino Faso on the 27 August, Ken continued eastwards and, by lunchtime on 29 August, he was in Nigeria, joining both Skinner and Derek in the west of the country and Tor, who is further east. Ken is now about 120km (75 miles) from both Skinner and Derek's positions, although in slightly different directions. It’s really interesting to see how similar the timings of these Norfolk Cuckoos’ eastwards movements are within Africa.  

In the last few days both Ken and Derek have moved around 100km (60 miles) eastwards, although they still remain in Burkina Faso and Nigeria respectively. Meanwhile Skinner has moved out of Niger and headed 305 km (190 miles) east to Nigeria. He is about 90km (50 miles) north-east of the town of Gummi. This echoes Nicks (much bigger) movement last week from Nigeria to Cameroon.

Ken has travelled 330km (210 miles) east within Burkina Faso and is now the only remaining tagged Cuckoo in the country. Both Skinner and Nick have left and continued eastwards. 

Ken has continued on from his location on and has covered 330km (205 miles), just enough to take him 25km (15 miles) within the border of Burkina Faso, where fellow Norfolk Cuckoo, Derek, has also recently arrived after completing his desert crossing. He is now north-est of Mawé, a town in the Banwa Province. It's amazing to see that Nick, Derek and Ken are all now on a very similar longitude to each other, and that it's not dissimilar to those Cuckoos which travelled further east.  

From his position within Mauritania, near the Senegal border, Ken has travelled a further 385km (240 miles) to Mali and close to the Baoul National Park. This new location is only 10 miles from the position Nick was in on 28 July.  

Signals received mid-morning on 25 July show that Ken had left Spain and was in Morocco, 153km (95 miles) south-west of Marrakesh. From here he then headed across the desert, and by the evening of 27 July he was past the Akchar desert in the middle of Mauritania.  By early morning on 30 July, Ken had reached the very south of Mauritania, and was close to the border with Senegal.  He is the fifth tagged Cuckoo to transmit from Africa, closely followed by Tor.

Despite being almost the last Cuckoo to leave the UK, only Patch departed after him, he has already crossed the desert, while many others remain in mainland Europe.  Since he first transmitted from France, on the 20 July, he has travelled 3410km (2120 miles)! 

Ken has made rapid progress since leaving Sussex sometime after the 18 July. By the evening of 20 July he had made it as far as the west coast of southern France, and by the early hours of 23 July he was in southern Spain! His last position was 70km (45 miles) south-east of Seville.  This means he covered 1,850km (1150 miles) in around 8 days. He is the fourth East Anglian Cuckoo to take the Spanish route this year. Chris, tagged in year 1 of the project, is the only East Anglian Cuckoo so far this year to take the Italian route. Nelson,  tagged this spring in East Anglia, remains in France and we are waiting to see which way he goes next.  

Having surprised us by leaving his tagging location in a north-westerly direction and heading to Lincolnshire, Ken has now finally begun his long journey south. A series of locations received during the day on 18 July show that he is now in East Sussex, north-west of Arlington Reservoir.