Updates from our Cuckoos

From north of Lake Chad, Sussex moved 165km (100 miles) east and then 105km (65 miles) south-east by the 4 August,  in the direction of Waller and Chris’s locations. There are currently five Cuckoos in Chad; BB, Waller, Livingstone, Chris and Sussex. 

Signals received late on 2 August confirmed that Waller had headed south and was about to attempt his desert crossing. A series of poor quality locations tracked him over Libya in the early hours of 3 August  and by the same time on 5 August  he had flown 1,720km (1070 miles) to the Hadjer-Lamis region of Chad,  30km (18 miles) south-east of Bokoro. He is roughly 65km (105 miles) from Sussex’s last transmitted location. 

Despite being the 13th Cuckoo to leave the UK, he has transmitted from Africa one day after Sussex, the first Cuckoo to leave the UK. 

Sometime after 29 July, Livingstone left his location near the river Po in Italy. Poor quality signals placed him on the coast of Africa by 31 July, close to Ichkeul National Park in Tunisia. A further series of poor quality locations tracked his journey through the Sahara Desert and by the evening of 3 August he was in south Niger. A few hours after this he was close to the south-west shores of Lake Chad in Nigeria before heading east, skirting around the lake and across the extreme north of Cameroon, and in to Chari-Baguirmi region of Chad. He is currently 44 miles east of the border with Cameroon.  

By the 2 August, Patch had moved across the border and into Austria. Signals placed him 17km (11 miles) east of Schwaz, a city in Tyrol in the Austrian Alps. He is the only Cuckoo to have stopped in Austria this year and only Chance the Cuckoo is currently further north than Patch's current position. 

Signals on 27 July show that Sussex was still in Corsica but by the 30 July he was on his way. Poor locations early that morning show Sussex over the sea, between Sardinia and Sicily, heading south. By mid-morning of the 1 August, transmissions revealed that he had indeed been in active migration and had completed the 3300km (2000 miles) journey to a location in Chad! He joins Chris and BB there. The last good signal located him 75km (45 miles) north-west of Lake Chad. Tor is also close by, in Nigeria. 

From his last position, Patch has headed south. The latest signals, received yesterday evening, show that he had covered 190km (118 miles) and was north of Mainburg, in the region of Bavaria. We continued to receive transmissions until the early hours of 1 August, which although of poor quality, indicate that he continued south, past Munich and was around the German border with Austria.

Signals received on the afternoon of 31 July show that Waller was still in Italy but had moved into Tuscany, to a location 30km (18 miles) south-west of Siena. Having left his position in northern Italy sometime after the morning of 29 July he has travelled 345km (215 miles) in a southerly direction. Further poor quality signals received after this, throughout the evening of 31 July, indicate he then continued south along the coast and was as far as Rome when the tag transmission period ended. 

On 23 July, Whortle revealed which route he had chosen to follow by heading from his location in France to Spain. He is the second of our Devon Cuckoos to take this route  This is really interesting as before this, only East Anglian birds had been found to take this route. The other two Devon Cuckoos, Dart and Tor, have visited the islands Mallorca and Corsica on their way south. 

Transmissions on 26 July still place Skinner in Spain, to the east of Checa in the Guadalajara region. 

From his last position, Nick appears to have changed direction and headed in a south-westerly direction to finish his desert crossing in the south-west corner of Mali on the evening of 25 July and early hours of 26 July. He is now 190km (120 miles) north-west of Bamako, the capital and largest city of Mali.

Nick and Ken, two of our East Anglian Cuckoos, are currently separated by around 380km (235 miles).