Ken had moved 100km (600 miles) by the 14 March and was just inside Ivory Coast. Waller and Derek are also in Ivory Coast, but further to the west.
Updates from our Cuckoos
Read the latest updates from our Cuckoos on their epic migration between the UK and tropical Africa, or track their movements in real-time on our Cuckoo migration map.
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Ken in Ivory Coast
19 Mar 2014
Skinner is on his way – over the sea!
19 Mar 2014
Skinner is the sixth of our tagged Cuckoos this spring to undertake the second leg of the journey back to the UK, however, his route to West Africa is a very interesting one. At 3am on 17 March he was in Cameroon, the battery voltage of his tag was low but the recorded temperature was high, c. 36 degrees which pointed to him being stationary at this time.
The tag sprang into life on 18 March, between 10am-4pm, this time the temperature was low – 12-20 degrees, so he was in active migration. He was still in migration mode at 5pm but by 6.18pm he was presumably on the ground as the temperature had increased to 30 degrees.
During his transmission cycle he travelled 500km in 9.75 hours, so was flying at a speed of 51kmph. It is difficult to say exactly what time he left Cameroon to begin his journey into West Africa but we suspect it was at dusk (around 6pm) on the 17 March.
After leaving Cameroon, we picked him up again over the sea in the Gulf of Guinea. To make it to this point he would have been flying for 16-17 hours and so was in active migration during daylight hours- not something we've seen before, except when flying over desert! From here he carried on for another 520km, making landfall in Togo around 6pm on the evening of the 18 March.
We have had many instances of cuckoos migrating over the Sahara by day but none before of them properly migrating by day at other points on the annual cycle (except one which moved across northern Ghana by day, but not in one movement at altitude in this case, and therefore more accurately described as searching for suitable areas than migrating). We guess that Skinner found himself over the sea at daybreak, having started his flight from unusually far south in Cameroon, and decided to carry on towards his target area.
Patch close to BB
19 Mar 2014
By 15 March, Patch had travelled 435km (270 miles) further north within Cameroon. This new location means that he is now only 20km (12 miles) from fellow tagged Cuckoo, BB. David is also relatively close, just 80km (50 miles) further south from Patch’s location.
Derek continues west
17 Mar 2014
Derek has continued 350km (218 miles) on from his last location and is now in the north-west of Ivory Coast, very close to it's border with Guinea. As for two of his fellow Norfolk Cuckoos, Ken, has also made it to Ivory Coast, while Chris has recently arrived in Ghana.
Chris is in Ghana
17 Mar 2014
By the early hours of 14 March, Chris had left Central African Republic and signals showed he was in the south of Nigeria. The next signals received on 16 March revealed he had contined on and was in Ghana. He had travelled a total of 1900km (1180 miles) from his location within Central African Republic to Ghana in no more than five days at most! In previous years he has arrived in Ghana between the 13-17 March, so once again he is on schedule!
Derek in Ivory Coast
11 Mar 2014
From his last position to the west of Lake Volta, Derek continued a further 445km (275 miles) in a north-westerly direction, across the border and in to Ivory Coast. He is now just north of Bouaké (or Bwake), the second largest city in Ivory Coast. Waller is a further 400km (250 miles) to the south-west.
Waller continues
07 Mar 2014
Waller has continued a further 515km (320 miles) west and is now in the west of Ivory Coast, close to the borders with Guinea and Liberia.
Ken moves further west
07 Mar 2014
Ken has moved a further 380km (235 miles) north-west within Nigeria but is some way behind Derek, the third Cuckoo to move in to West Africa, who is now in Ghana.
Derek close on Waller's heels
07 Mar 2014
By the 28 February, Derek had moved from Congo to central Cameroon. This morning, 7 March, we received signals showing he had covered a further 1490km (925 miles), which puts him to the west of Lake Volta in Ghana. He is the third of our tagged Cuckoos in West Africa but is further to the west than Ken who has remained in Nigeria.
A chance for Chance
04 Mar 2014
The charge on both Chance and Tor’s tags was very low on the last transmission before they went 'missing’. We hope that like Tor’s, Chance’s tag will resume transmissions once it has been exposed to sunlight after he moves to a new location. If it does not, it is most likely that the battery completely discharged during the period that it was not charging sufficiently to transmit and subsequently perished. In previous years, the tracked cuckoos have mostly died during the main spring and autumn migrations between Europe and Africa, rather than during the mid-winter period, so battery failure would seem more likely than Chance dying during the period that his tag was uncharged.
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